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Top 10 Stories of 2025: City Streamlines Hiring Through Unified Approach
By Staff Writer
Published on Wed, Dec 24, 2025
As 2025 comes to a close, Long Beach is celebrating the accomplishments that helped move the City forward—from major infrastructure improvements to transformative organizational reforms. Among the year’s top achievements is a landmark overhaul of the City’s hiring system, designed to modernize recruitment, improve efficiency and build a stronger, more responsive workforce for the community.
In May, the City officially merged its Civil Service Department with the Human Resources Department, forming a single, unified department dedicated to streamlining hiring and strengthening workforce development. The reform of the 109 year-old former hiring system has resulted in position vacancy rates dropping, faster hiring and even more focus on providing job opportunities to local residents.
The merger marked a major step toward creating a more efficient, community-centered and merit-based hiring process for the City of Long Beach, which employs more than 6,000 full- and part-time personnel across more than 20 departments and offices.
With hiring now centralized, Long Beach is setting an ambitious goal to become the first large city in California to achieve a 90-day hiring standard—helping departments fill roles faster and more effectively.
The change followed voter approval of Measure JB in November 2024, which amended the City Charter to allow for local hiring preferences and a more modern approach to recruitment. The reform addressed longstanding inefficiencies that resulted from overlapping recruitment and hiring responsibilities across separate departments.
Measure JB also established an independent Civil Service Employee Rights and Appeals Commission to oversee disciplinary appeals and address complaints related to Civil Service rules. Comprised of five commissioners, the commission increases transparency and accountability while protecting employee rights.
For more information about the City’s hiring efforts, visit longbeach.gov/hr.
