Recruitment became less challenging in 2024 and saw continued improvement in 2025. Across 19 key occupations, the share of survey respondents who considered them “hard to fill,” dropped by 10 percentage points or more since 2022.

This survey of public sector human resources professionals has been conducted annually since 2009 by MissionSquare Research Institute in collaboration with the Public Sector HR Association (PSHRA) and the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE).