AUGUSTA – With hundreds of job vacancies to be filled, state government is making a presence at career fairs and taking a new look at its pay scales in an effort to find new workers.

The Department of Human Services held an open house in Portland in late January and has attended career fairs elsewhere to lure potential workers to nursing, child welfare and other positions. DHS, one of the state’s largest departments with 2,500 employees, has 136 vacancies.

A Human Services spokesman called the shortage of workers “a huge issue for us.”

“It’s been happening for years, but it’s much more pronounced in the last year,” said David Winslow.

Pay is not the only factor, but it’s a big one, Winslow said. For example, DHS pays nurses $5 to $10 an hour less than what the private sector is now offering, Winslow said.

Another big department, Transportation, has 2,400 jobs and about 100 openings. Officials are more concerned with the turnover than the percentage of open positions.

“We’re spending a lot of money on hiring and training and they’re not staying,” said Jane Gilbert, director of human resources for the department.

While hiring difficulties at one time were limited to southern Maine, they are now spreading north to Bangor and beyond, Gilbert said.

With the job crunch on, the King administration has initiated a study into pay rates as requested by the Maine State Employees Association, which represents 10,000 of the state’s 14,000 employees.

MSEA Executive Director Carl Leinonen said he hopes pay scales can be lifted in the short run for jobs that are hardest to fill, and in the long run for all state employees.The King administration and MSEA opened contract negotiations last week. The current two-year pact expires this June.