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City reports 5,791 vacancies; administration highlights hiring bus and CCME to lower vacancy rate
Summary
Candy Jones, chief human resources officer, told Council the city had about 5,700 vacancies in March 2025, about a 17% vacancy rate, and described expanded recruiting efforts including a mobile hiring bus and targeted federal recruitment events.
Council members pressed administration witnesses about city vacancy rates and recruitment strategies during the Committee of the Whole's FY2026 budget hearing. Candy Jones, the city's chief human resources officer, said that as of March 2025 there were "about 5,700 vacancies," which she said corresponded to roughly a 17% vacancy rate and represents an improvement from the prior 19% figure.
Jones described increased outreach and a multi-channel recruiting effort. She said application totals rose from about 53,000 in 2023 to over 60,000 in 2024, and that the city attended more than 55 recruiting events in 2024, engaging more than 3,000 candidates. Jones said two recent federal recruitment events engaged more than 250 candidates who were transitioning from federal positions.
Administration witnesses credited the City College for Municipal Employment (CCME), which launched in September 2024, with creating pipelines into municipal employment. Camille Duchasse, the chief administrative officer, said a first CCME cohort included roughly 75 students across IT, health services specialist and administrative support tracks; she said the administrative professional program was completed first and candidates were in the process of interviewing for municipal jobs.
Duchasse and Jones also described nontraditional outreach including a mobile hiring bus, radio and digital ad buys, airport and stadium advertising, and targeted recruitment fairs. Jones said new hire totals rose from about 2,400 to about 3,300 new hires year over year, and that separations remain a concern for retaining staff.
Council members asked for more detailed, department-level data. Rob DeBeau and Jones agreed to provide the council with: (1) the budgeted versus actual vacancy rates for FY2024 and FY2025, (2) a department-by-department time-to-hire visual that breaks the hiring process into stages, and (3) separations and new-hire trend lines. Jones said she would provide a visual that breaks the hiring timeline into four parts and that OHR can identify which agency step is delaying hires.
The mayor's budget documents include a $10,000,000 allocation for workforce development; Camille Duchasse described CCME as the umbrella for city workforce efforts and said the funds would support partnerships with Community College of Philadelphia, school district partnerships and other training and placement efforts. Duchasse said the first CCME cohort generated strong interest and that the program is being aligned to the city's hardest-to-fill positions.
No formal vote or policy decision on hiring strategy was taken at the hearing. Council members and administration staff scheduled follow-up briefings and record submissions to supply the detailed vacancy and hiring metrics requested by council.
