Department of Human Resources – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

The Department of Human Resources remained at relatively steady budget and staffing levels from 2011 through 2022, when a Lightfoot-era push to ramp up staffing nearly doubled the department's budgeted headcount for the 2023 budget. Unlike most of the spikes in departmental budgets that began in the 2021 budget, DHR was not primarily relying on pandemic relief funds for its increase.

From 2011-2026, DHR's budget grew at an average rate of 6.2% annually, or 3.9% when adjusted for inflation through 2025, compared to a citywide average rate of 5.5% (inflation-adjusted 3.2%). The current proposal would increase the department's appropriations by 6.4% from the previous year.

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out "fringe" pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae.

Based on the city's fringe formulae, the DHR fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 49.4% from 2018-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%.

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, DHR spent on average 87.4% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Overall, the department's budgeted headcount grew at an average annual rate of 3.7% from 2011-2026, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%. The current proposal retains the same total budgeted headcount as the previous year.

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, DHR averaged a 8.3% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.

Six of the department's budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data):