Chemung County looking to fill 149 job openings

CHEMUNG COUNTY, N.Y. (WETM) – Public records show as of January 2nd, Chemung County has 149 job openings. They are spread across 24 departments. The vacancies represent 14.38% of a total of 1,036 budgeted positions. The highest number of openings are in the County Nursing Facility, Department of Social Services, and County Jail. Other vacancies include the Health Department, Emergency 911, Public Defender, Public Advocate, Probation, Board of Elections, Treasurer, Buildings & Grounds, County DMV, Treasurer and Information Technology.

Chemung County Executive Chris Moss told 18 News the number of vacancies is a “little higher” than usual. “Once the pandemic came, a lot of people didn’t want to come back to work after we got out of the pandemic,” said Moss.

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The County Nursing Facility has the most vacancies at 54. Executive Moss said the facility is struggling with a statewide shortage of Certified Nursing Assistants and Licensed Practical Nurses.

“It’s hard to find CNAs. It has become very competitive,” said Moss. “And what they will do is, they can get trained here but they go to another location where they can make more money. So, the private sector is also interested in CNAs and LNPs. So, I mean, it’s a tough job market in that area, and not only for Chemung County. It’s all over the state,” said Moss.

“We are working with the state, asking them to lessen the civil service requirements. Right now, not only do you have a test, you have to score within the top three to be hired for most of these positions. It really bottlenecks up the process, especially when you’re in need. So again, Chemung County is not alone. You look at these vacancies. You’ll find them all over the state. Not only in county government, but for local government and state government,” said Moss.

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The next highest number of vacancies is in the Department of Social Services, with 20 job openings.

“I believe there’s quite a few caseworker positions. So, remember, if we’re short caseworkers, you may get double the load that you normally have. And you know what’s that is going to do to a person, it wears them out. So, it’s very important to get these positions filled,” said Moss.

Chemung County Sheriff Bill Schrom told 18 News the Chemung County Jail has 19 job openings. In a January 14th interview for the Sunday morning show “Talk of the Tiers,” Sheriff Schrom addressed a nationwide shortage in Corrections Officers.

“Right now, we’re feeling the challenges of recruiting and retaining personnel, specifically in our Corrections Division, more so than anywhere else,” said Sheriff Schrom. “We have 19 openings there. 6 of them full-time. 13 part-time. I can tell you that you guys recently ran a story on that topic, and it has really helped a lot. We’ve received a tremendous amount of response to that.”

Mr. Moss served also served as Sheriff before becoming the Chemung County Executive.

“When you look at the law enforcement related jobs, probation, corrections deputies, a lot of folks have a hard time passing the background,” said Moss. “People aren’t interested in that employment as much as they used to be 10, 20 years ago. I mean, I can remember a time when 250 people would show up to take a deputy sheriff police officer exam. That doesn’t happen anymore. So, whether you know, the job, kids just don’t want to go into that career anymore, it’s hard to tell, but it’s a challenge,” said Moss.

“We have 150 vacancies approximately right now. It’ll fluctuate during the whole year; it might go down to 140 next month. We send the sheet to the Legislature every month so they can see how many vacancies we have and of what,” said Moss.

“One of the things we did do different this year and the 2024 budget is we’ve budgeted what we call a breakage for those positions that we weren’t able to hire for,” said Moss. “So, we have that factored right in the budget. In other years, for instance, we might finish in the black because these positions remain vacant. We’ve actually budgeted that as revenue, knowing that we’re never going to be able to fill these 149, most likely. But remember, some of these are mandated positions, like correction officers, a lot of the Department of Social Services positions, some of them are reimbursed to the state 60/40. So again, if we, if taxpayers are paying 40 out of local share, then the rest may come from the state. So, it’s tough to say out of that 149. Most of those could be 100%, funded from the general fund. But a lot of more also partially paid for by the state or federal government through a grant process.”

Executive Moss says the County is planning on holding another Job Fair in the Spring.

“We’re always trying to advertise via social media and so forth. If you’re looking for work, there might be something that fits you. So definitely reach out to our HR department,” said Moss.

You can view updated job openings in Chemung County here.

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