Retirement and low pay caused Texas agencies to lose nearly 29,000 employees last year

By Marissa Evans, Texas Tribune


Texas agencies saw the highest turnover rate they've had in the last five fiscal years after losing thousands of employees to retirement and low wages, and advocates for state workers are calling on lawmakers to increase pay.

A State Auditor’s Office report released in December found that agency turnover was at 19.3 percent in the 2018 budget year. Auditors said the rate is based on 28,684 employees who voluntary and involuntary left their jobs that year. The top reasons employees said they left were retirement, better pay and benefits and poor working conditions or environments. The report pointed out that without involuntary departures and retirements, the statewide turnover rate was 11.4 percent, which is a “true” turnover rate “because it reflects preventable turnover.”

State worker turnover in the 2018 budget year was the highest it's been since auditors began tracking it in 1990, according to the Texas State Employees Union. In fiscal year 2017 the state worker turnover rate was 18.6 percent.

Seth Hutchinson, vice president for the Texas State Employees Union, said that legislators “want to bury their heads in the sand" about pay continuing to be a problem.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/08/state-auditor-texas-agencies-lost-nearly-29000-employees-last-year/