Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is the latest state chief executive hoping to encourage laid-off federal workers to apply for positions in state government. At a Harrisburg job fair Wednesday, he signed an executive order that also seeks to boost the prospects of veterans seeking state positions.
“If they're qualified and they want to serve Pennsylvanians, hear me on this,” Shapiro said. “We want you on our team.”
It’s a move similar to those recently announced by governors in Maryland, New York, Virginia and Hawai’i, each of whom has sought to expedite hiring of federal employees who’ve been casualties of President Donald Trump’s efforts to pare back the federal workforce.
“[The federal government] made dramatic cuts — cuts that I think make us less safe and less healthy and less protected in the United States of America,” Shapiro told reporters Wednesday.
Pennsylvania is home to more than 100,000 federal employees, Shapiro said. And his order directs state agencies to consider relevant federal experience analogous to state-level experience, a move that could improve the hiring prospects of those government workers. Officials also rolled out a new state career website that compares equivalent federal and state positions.
Out of 81,000 state jobs, Pennsylvania has 5,600 “critical vacancies” for posts that include registered nurses, civil engineers, accountants and emergency-management positions.
“I want to fill these vacancies … with federal workers who are looking for a great place to work, where they will be respected, and where their skills will be used to help our fellow Pennsylvanians,” said Shapiro.
He was joined by Administrative Office secretary Neil Weaver and state Civil Service Commissioner Pam Iovino — a Navy veteran who formerly represented the South Hills of Pittsburgh in the state Senate. Also in attendance were south-central Pennsylvania Democratic House members, and a former federal worker who now works for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
“We want to make sure we are doing everything we can to attract the best and brightest to public service,” Weaver said. “Our goal is to have a strong workforce and state government to meet the diverse needs of our residents.”
Shapiro stressed that the goal was to fill existing vacancies, not expand state government: He and other speakers connected the new hiring initiative to broader efforts to open up and streamline state hiring practices. Democratic state Rep. Dave Madsen of Dauphin County said his civil service modernization act would also speed up the process, by easing some rules and simplifying candidate assessment.
Some 70,000 state positions employ people without a college degree — sometimes “an arbitrary requirement” attached to some jobs, Shapiro said. And he added that hiring for a state job, a process that once took three months, now takes 60 days on average, a timeframe more closely aligned with the private sector.
Shapiro's move drew prompt criticism from Republicans.
In a statement, GOP House leader Jesse Topper said Pennsylvania shouldn’t become “a sanctuary for adrift bureaucrats.”
“While President Trump is using his mandate to lead the federal government in an unprecedented effort to right-size itself in true responsibility to the taxpayers, finding ways to add to our bureaucracy here in Pennsylvania sends us in the wrong direction,” said Topper, of Bedford County.
Nathan Benefield, chief policy officer for the conservative Commonwealth Foundation, agreed, calling Shapiro’s order “questionable.”
“I don't see it being in the taxpayer's interest though to prioritize former federal employees over people who ... may be more qualified and have private sector experience and training,” Benefield said. “Why give them preference? Are they actually more meritorious? I'm skeptical.”
