(Illustration by Natasha Vicens/PublicSource)
Pittsburgh’s government hired more people than it lost in 2022, a first since COVID began. Will it continue? City payroll detailed.
by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource
The City of Pittsburgh hired more employees than it lost in 2022, reversing a recent trend and marking a new phase in pandemic recovery.
The city employed 3,462 full-time employees last year, according to pay data that PublicSource obtains and examines annually. There were 369 new hires and 350 people left city jobs during the year.
“We continue to push to have all staffing levels in the administration properly filled,” said city press secretary Olga George. “We hope that the data is a proper indicator of stabilization of the workforce in the city.”
Michael Lamb, who has been the city controller through financial downturn, state oversight and the COVID pandemic, said the fact that the city hired more workers than it lost “is a step in the right direction.”
Mayor Ed Gainey made public works a special focus during his first year in office, a move that is reflected in the hiring data: The Department of Public Works hired 109 people in 2022, offsetting 78 departures.
The city’s budget, meanwhile, is partially kept afloat by federal pandemic relief funds — including tens of millions annually for personnel. That pool of money will be gone after 2024.
The one glaring outlier was the Bureau of Police. Recruitment was paused under former Mayor Bill Peduto in 2020, a move that is still felt today, with virtually no uniformed officers joining the force in 2022 (10 administrative hires were made). Ninety employees left the bureau last year, mostly uniformed officers, as union officials and city councilors sounded the alarm over depleted police numbers.
The mayor’s office estimated that there are now 371 vacancies in the city government, mostly in public works and the police.
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