Retirement Wave Hits: Morganton and County Brace for Labor Shortage

The hallway of the executive wing at Morganton City Hall was bedecked with celebratory balloons and decorations and lined with tables full of food Wednesday morning.

The shindig was in honor of retiring paralegal Carolyn Richardson on her final day of work. 

City Manager Sally Sandy said Richardson had been a vital part of the team since the city first brought legal services in-house in the 1990s. Richardson’s departure comes on the heels of City Attorney Louis Vinay’s announcement he’ll retire Sept. 1. 

Two other key city officials, Sandy and Cultural and Creative Development Director Sharon Jablonski, have both put in more than 30 years of service, although neither has plans to step down in the near future. 

A total of 36 city employees out of a workforce of 300 full-time employees have more than 20 years on the job. 

At the county level, Burke Human Resources Director Larenda Johnson recently called it a day, and just this week, EMS Director Jason Black said he’d be stepping away in August. 

Despite the loss of experienced legal personnel, Sandy said the city’s versatile roster is fully capable of bridging the gaps until replacements can be found, adding several promising candidates have applied for Vinay’s job. 

For her, the process is old hat.

“One box on the organizational chart does not equal one person,” she said with a laugh. “We call it doing what it takes to get the job done.

“We’ve been going through it for a while. The only department director that is still here that was here in that capacity when I took the manager’s job is Sharon. Everyone else has been replaced at least once, and some multiple times.”

Similarly, County Manager Brian Epley doesn’t expect a major disruption.

But Epley said problems loom on the horizon as leaders age out. The workforce is shrinking rapidly, and quality applicants will consequently become harder and harder to find.

Declining birth rates and mass retirements among the Baby Boomer generation have conspired to produce a future labor shortage of epic proportions.

“The workforce is cyclical, but we are approaching a cliff, not only in local government but in all industries,” he said. “The age demographic breakdown of our workforce reveals there are far more people retiring than there are entering the workforce.”

There are multiple factors that make the coming labor crunch problematic for local governments.

Sandy said ideal candidates not only need a solid work ethic, but a strong sense of obligation to the community. She used Vinay as an example, citing his years of service on the city’s planning and zoning board prior to beginning his stint as its attorney more than 12 years ago.

“It’s not just the competency,” Sandy said. “It’s the willingness.” 

Epley added it’s becoming increasingly difficult for government agencies to compete with the private sector for the most desirable applicants.  Case in point: Morganton's search for a senior planner has stretched a full year.

The typically stellar benefits many government jobs offer — as well as the promise of a pension waiting at the end of a career -- offset some of the deficit, but not enough. 

“Local government tends to be a less-attractive industry for young people because it tends to have lagging wages,” Epley said. “It also tends to have more rigid working requirements — not offering as much remote work as the younger workforce desires — and it’s 24/7, especially as you move into a department head role.”

Epley said in order to attract qualified personnel, cities and counties will need to up their games with better pay and more flexible schedules. They’ll also have to foster development from within their own ranks, a strategy Morganton and Burke County often employ.

“There are more jobs posted every day than there are candidates,” Epley said. “That makes succession planning and promoting from inside your organization more and more critical. It also makes it more important for governments to become employers of choice.”

Despite the coming labor shortfall, the old baseball term for stop-gap measures — “plug and play” — should be enough to get the job done, for now at least.

“In my 30-plus years, there has always been someone willing to step in and fill the gaps and make it work for the period of time we need it to work,” Sandy said.

Marty Queen is the senior reporter for The Paper. He may be reached at 828-445-8595 or at marty@thepaper.media.