Cities relying more on temporary workers

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DAYTON —

A significant loss of public sector jobs since the Great Recession has led city governments to rely more heavily on temporary employees to deliver basic services.

Dayton has shed 306 full-time jobs and $23 million in personnel costs at the same time spending $4.3 million to hire temporary workers from 2005 through August, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of public records.

Kettering, Xenia, Centerville and Englewood all have faced the same pressures, though on a smaller scale.

“Cities can’t keep their old ways of service delivery given their shrinking tax base,”said Myron Levine,a Wright State University professor who specializes in city issues and politics. Using temporary workers makes sense because “it avoids permanent expenses (wages, insurance and pensions) to the work force, expenses that may not be wise in these economic times.”

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