The Looming Shortage of Qualified Personnel in Public Service: Implications for Education, Security, Health, and Administration

Key areas such as education, security, health and public administration must expect a shortage of personnel in a few years: by 2030, there will probably be a shortage of more than 130,000 qualified workers in public service, reports the “SonntagsZeitung”. This corresponds to 15% of the required staff, according to the forecasts of a study carried out by the consulting and auditing firm PWC in collaboration with the University of St. Gallen. Consequences: the growing shortage of personnel will lead to
a “decrease in performance and quality” in the public sector. Concretely, this means, for example, longer waiting times for requests, poorer support in the health system or shortcomings in cybersecurity.

Administrations will probably be more affected by the shortage of qualified workers than other sectors of the public service. PWC predicts a shortage of a quarter of the necessary personnel by 2030. HR managers interviewed within the federal, cantonal and municipal authorities explain that positions are already difficult to fill. They would typically receive only a few applications for job offers – and often from people who are insufficiently qualified. “In general, we can say that the number of applications per position has decreased and that it takes more time to fill vacant positions,” confirms Anand Jagtap, head of communications at the Federal Personnel Office. The reason? The civil service is less attractive for the most sought-after specialists, for example in IT, due to low innovation and rigid salary structures and models. There is also a second problem: the average age of staff in public administration is higher
than in the rest of the economy. According to the Federal Personnel Office, 30% of employees will reach retirement age in the next ten years. The situation is also tense in the cantonal administrations.