RECORD amounts of federal aid set to flow through U.S. state and local coffers will add to the workload of public accountants and investment officers, pressure that could build further as a potential surge of retirements exacerbates a worker shortage.

The demand for public finance employees based on online job postings surged 84 percent between 2016 and 2020, even after a slight year-over-year dip last year due to the pandemic, according to a study released yesterday by the U.S. National Association of State Treasurers Foundation.

Over 2019 and 2020, public sector employers across all levels of government posted more than 112,000 jobs online including chief financial officer, accountant, financial analyst, auditor, debt manager and budget specialist, according to the report.

Additionally, the sector that employs more than 850,000 state, county and city government workers may be on the verge of a so-called “silver tsunami,” according to the association. The public finance workforce, 31 percent of which is over the age of 55, “is on the brink of a wave of retirements,” the report said.

“We are entering a potentially tumultuous era of employment and staffing in the public finance sector,” Indiana Treasurer Kelly Mitchell and Connecticut Treasurer Shawn Wooden said in the opening remarks in the report.

The finance segment of the state and local workforce is one of several in the government sector facing pressures around the country. U.S. state and local government job openings jumped to 936,000 in July, the highest since at least 2000, according to the U.S. Labor Department this month.

(SD-Agencies)