‘Something bad will happen’: NC agencies say low staffing levels pose risk

For years, North Carolina government agencies have told of struggles to recruit and retain employees. Officials now say the staffing situation is so dire that it poses a risk to existing staff and  residents. And it could get worse, they say, if lawmakers don’t approve a new budget with raises for state workers. 

Take the Department of Adult Corrections, which manages the state’s prisons. With a 24% turnover rate, the department has fewer officers overseeing a growing prison population, department leaders told lawmakers this week.

Corrections department leaders say they’re scared for their employees’ safety due to low staffing levels causing shifts to be undermanned, or worked by guards who are exhausted from working hours of mandatory overtime. And with vacancies caused by low pay still rampant, it’s not a concern that’s going away.

“If we do not address these issues, something bad will happen,” department secretary Leslie Dismukes said during a legislative hearing this week. “It is not a question of if. It is a question of when.” 

Entry-level prison employees make about $37,000 a year, which according to the state prison system is about $10,000 less than neighboring states and nearly $15,000 less than the national average. Low pay is causing applicants to look elsewhere for work, Dismukes said, and it’s causing some employees to flee. 

The situation is playing out across state government. Thousands of state job vacancies in North Carolina are stretching public services — a crisis leaders from both parties say will not ease until lawmakers break the ongoing budget stalemate. In some agencies, such as at the Division of Motor Vehicles, the issue spills out into the public eye in the form of long lines. 

A new, 700‑page report from Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek, released Thursday,  shows widespread vacancies across nearly every major state agency, including public safety, health care, transportation and environmental oversight. It identified more than 4,500 jobs across state government that have gone unfilled for over a year. The most common reason given for the vacancies was low compensation, the auditor’s report notes. 

“These are not unnecessary jobs,” Ardis Watkins, the executive director of the association, said Thursday in a letter to Gov. Josh Stein and legislative leaders. “They are positions tied to real services. When agencies cannot hire, citizens wait longer, workloads grow, and outcomes suffer.” 

Watkins urged lawmakers to approve funding to increase compensation of state employees to make the jobs more competitive. 

“Continue to starve the workforce and bad outcomes will follow — more failures, more delays, and, eventually, real harm to the people these agencies exist to protect,” Watkins said. “That harm will not be accidental; it will be the foreseeable consequence of choices made today.”

Across agencies, more than $1 billion went unspent on salaries—often called lapsed salary—because positions remained vacant, according to the auditor’s report. Boliek’s report recommends improving accountability around vacancy reporting and the use of unspent salary funds. Many of the agencies fall under Stein, and Boliek noted that the governor could offer solutions. 

“The executive branch can take note on some places where dollars can be saved by eliminating positions that are currently vacant or taking those dollars and reallocating those dollars in agency's budgets so tax payers can get a full return on their investment," Boliek said. 

Stein’s office responded to a draft of Boliek’s report that was released last week. Seth Dearmin, Stein’s chief of staff, said in a letter to Boliek that the administration has been trying to tackle vacancies, acknowledging that “HR and hiring processes need significant improvement.”

According to data from the Office of State Human Resources, North Carolina state agencies had about 71,426 total positions with roughly 14,029 vacancies as of May 2025, a vacancy rate near 19.6%.

Hundreds of state positions have been frozen while budget negotiations drag on, Watkins and Stein say. State employee advocates argue frozen positions are being cited in the auditor’s report as justification for cuts that would permanently eliminate jobs that agencies still need.

“When hiring is prohibited, vacancy numbers will rise — even when the work is essential,” Watkins said. “That doesn’t mean the need has gone away.”

Dearmin said the total value of the vacant positions calculated by Boliek doesn’t add up to $1.04 billion. Dearmin said the report included $246 million in lapsed salary reported by the auditor comes from “854 unfunded placeholder positions that have never generated lapsed salary.” 

Randy Brechbiel, communications director for the auditor’s office, said there’s nothing misleading or inaccurate about the office’s findings. The auditor’s office calculated salary information using definitions outlined by the Office of State Budget and Management, he said.

Nevertheless, Stein said the findings reinforce the need for lawmakers to pass a budget—something they have failed to do months into the fiscal year. “Our teachers are among the lowest paid teachers in this country, our correctional officers, 49th lowest paid. State Highway Patrol, 49th lowest paid,” Stein said Thursday.

Vacancy trends across state government

Boliek’s report identified thousands of long‑term vacancies across state government, including at the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Transportation, Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Adult Correction. The report identified all positions vacant at least six months as of Aug. 6, 2025, and determined whether agencies posted and recruited for those roles.

That could mean fewer food inspectors, fewer mental health providers, and fewer employees checking air and water quality. 

Stephanie Nmashie works as a medicaid certification training representative for the state Department of Health and Human Services. She said she has witnessed the vacancies have led to significantly increased workloads for those in her department. 

“That, in turn, will lead to employee burnout,” Nmashie said.

Staffing shortages are also showing up in slower services, longer wait times and strained workloads for remaining employees, worker advocates and agency heads say. 

A performance audit of the Division of Motor Vehicles, for instance, found that over the past 15 years, the number of DMV driver examiner positions grew by about 10%, while the state’s population  increased roughly 29%. 

Some of the most urgent staffing warnings have come from public safety leaders, including the Department of Adult Correction.

The agency oversees 55 prisons housing more than 32,000 inmates, plus supervision for more than 75,000 people on probation and parole. Officials say roughly 9,000 correctional officers are needed to staff facilities as designed.

As a result, prisons are operating at what officials describe as critical staffing levels, relying heavily on mandatory overtime. Over the past year, the department spent $73.5 million on mandatory overtime, with officers often working extended shifts to cover vacancies.

Similar concerns have been voiced by leaders in probation services and juvenile justice, who say vacancies slow responses and strain rehabilitation efforts.

‘Failures are not accidental’ 

Last year, state budget officials reported revenues coming in $471 million over projections, but more than $570 million of that total came from unspent salary funds — money left because agencies couldn’t fill positions. 

Critics argue that such dynamics can make the state’s finances look healthier while masking deeper workforce problems.

“For years, state employees have been doing the work of two people,” Watkins said. “When services slow down or systems fail, it’s workers who take the blame, not the policies that kept agencies from hiring.”

Despite political divisions over spending, there is rare bipartisan agreement that staffing shortages are hurting state government. Boliek’s audit does not prescribe specific policy changes but recommends lawmakers examine staffing and vacancy data more closely rather than using vacancy totals alone to justify cuts.

What remains unresolved is when — or whether — lawmakers will pass a budget that allows agencies to fill positions and stabilize the workforce.

Until then, agency leaders warn the consequences of prolonged vacancies will continue to ripple outward, affecting public safety, health care, infrastructure services and more.

“North Carolinians depend on these services every day,” Dismukes said. “Without investment in the workforce, failures are not accidental. They are predictable.”