Bergen County
County Government · Bergen County
2,229 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Bergen County, reporting a median pensionable salary of $65,864.
Bergen County is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a county government in Bergen County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Bergen County has 50 confirmed civil service jurisdictions in total, including this one.
About county governments in New Jersey
New Jersey's 21 counties run services that cross municipal lines: courts, county roads, parks, corrections, and often social services. A county's civil service status covers its own direct employees; the municipalities inside it each make their own separate decision about whether to join the system.
See all 50 civil service jurisdictions in Bergen County, or browse the full employer directory.
Civil service examination announcements
12 examination announcements naming Bergen County are open for filing. Who may file differs by row.
These are examinations, not job vacancies. Passing one places you on an eligible list; it is not an offer of employment, and this site does not track openings. Filing is with the Civil Service Commission, not with us.
Open competitive examinations
These are open to anyone who meets the published requirements, inside or outside government. Residency or other conditions may narrow who may file, and the announcement itself is the authority on that.
| Title | Open to | Closes | Status | Announcement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accountant | All Departments | October 21, 2026 | Open | C1208H |
| Administrator Cultural And Heritage Affairs | All Departments | October 21, 2026 | Open | C1097H |
| Clinical Psychologist | All Departments | October 21, 2026 | Open | C1209H |
| Coordinator Of Monitoring And Evaluation | All Departments | October 21, 2026 | Open | C1179H |
| Program Development Specialist Cultural And Heritage Affairs | All Departments | October 21, 2026 | Open | C1207H |
| Social Worker | All Departments | October 21, 2026 | Open | C1130H |
| Animal Health Technician | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0989H |
| Animal Keeper | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1021H |
| Community Relations Specialist | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1023H |
| Community Service Aide/Clerk 2 | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1024H |
| Court Clerk | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1025H |
| Environmental Health Specialist | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1026H |
| Fire And Ambulance Dispatcher | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1027H |
| Fiscal Analyst | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0909H |
| Greens Superintendent | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0990H |
| Greenskeeper | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1028H |
| Inspector Mosquito Extermination | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1030H |
| Maintenance Worker 3 Grounds | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1031H |
| Manager Golf Facilities | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1032H |
| Microfilm Systems Supervisor | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1033H |
| Nutrition Technician | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C1034H |
| Paralegal Specialist | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0911H |
| Principal Purchasing Assistant | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0991H |
| Probate Clerk | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0922H |
| Program Coordinator Senior Citizens Transportation | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0923H |
| Program Specialist 2 | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0980H |
| Radio Technician | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0931H |
| Recovery Assistant Detoxification Unit | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0932H |
| Road Repairer 1 | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0933H |
| Social Service Technician | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0979H |
| Veterans Service Officer | All Departments | September 21, 2026 | Closed | C0910H |
Promotional examinations
Open only to people already holding permanent status in a qualifying title within the department named on its row, not across Bergen County. How promotional eligibility works.
| Title | Department | Closes | Status | Announcement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHIEF PUBLIC SAFETY TELECOMMUNICATORPromoted from: Supervising Public Safety Telecommunicator | PUBLIC SAFETY | October 21, 2026 | Open | PC3906H |
| EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT | PUBLIC WORKS | October 21, 2026 | Open | PC3944H |
| KEYBOARDING CLERK 4Promoted from: Keyboarding Clerk 3, Keyboarding Clerk 3 Bilingual in Spanish and English | PUBLIC WORKS | October 21, 2026 | Open | PC3969H |
| PROGRAM ANALYSTPromoted from: Assistant Program Analyst | PARKS | October 21, 2026 | Open | PC4006H |
| SENIOR ACCOUNT CLERKPromoted from: Account Clerk | UTILITIES AUTHORITY | October 21, 2026 | Open | PC4020H |
| SENIOR JUVENILE DETENTION OFFICERPromoted from: Juvenile Detention Officer, Juvenile Detention Officer Bilingual in Spanish and English | HUMAN SERVICES | October 21, 2026 | Open | PC4038H |
Source: the New Jersey Civil Service Commission's own examination announcement lists, read on October 13, 2026, with each row linked to the announcement it was read from. The Commission posts promotional announcements on the 1st of each month and removes them after about three weeks, so recently closed announcements are kept here rather than dropped. Every date and every title here is the Commission's. An announcement is matched to this employer by the name it carries, exactly; where a name is ambiguous we leave it unmatched rather than guess. How this data is sourced.
Who is on the pension rolls at Bergen County
2,229 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Bergen County. That is a count of active memberships reported by the employer, not a payroll headcount: anyone not enrolled in one of these funds does not appear in this data at all, and no separate headcount for a New Jersey local employer is published anywhere we can check against.
| Fund | Name | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 1,627 | 73% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 602 | 27% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 601 police officers and 1 firefighter. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Bergen County actually appoints.
21 of these members hold a second public job in New Jersey: their reported salary across all public employers exceeds what they are paid here. Shared and part-time appointments are common in local government, and the salary figures below count only the portion earned at Bergen County.
Pensionable salary at Bergen County
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Bergen County reports a pensionable salary above $65,864 and half below, across 2,229 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $37,332 |
| 25th percentile | $45,691 |
| Median | $65,864 |
| 75th percentile | $107,659 |
| 90th percentile | $155,600 |
The range runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile because the extremes are not informative: the lowest reported figures belong to part-time and partial-year members, whose credited salary is a fraction of a full-time equivalent.
Among the 25 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 4th percentile, below the county's midpoint of $80,210. Against the 20 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 60th percentile.
These figures are pensionable salary reported to the NJ Division of Pensions and Benefits for the four most recent quarters, not total pay and not take-home pay. Snapshot of March 31, 2026. How we compile this.
How long people stay at Bergen County
The median enrolled member at Bergen County has 9.9 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 3.5 and 19.7 years. 24% have passed twenty years, which matters locally because retirement eligibility and the pension formula both turn on service credit.
| Credited service | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5 years | 681 | 31% |
| 5 to 10 years | 434 | 19% |
| 10 to 15 years | 351 | 16% |
| 15 to 20 years | 222 | 10% |
| 20 to 25 years | 347 | 16% |
| 25 years or more | 194 | 9% |
Membership tier records which pension rules a member was hired under, so the mix is a rough picture of how recently a workforce turned over. At Bergen County, 50% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 674 | 30% |
| Tier 2 | 53 | 2% |
| Tier 3 | 355 | 16% |
| Tier 4 | 27 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 1,120 | 50% |
What civil service status means for jobs at Bergen County
A county government is among the largest employers in this directory, and its civil service status reaches across the county jail, the road and bridge crews, the parks system, the clerk and surrogate offices, and in most counties a share of health and human services staff.
Several county titles have no municipal equivalent at all. County correctional police officer is the clearest case: its own entry examination, its own academy requirement, and its own closed promotional ladder up through sergeant, lieutenant and captain. A county's status also stops at its own payroll, which is why a county can operate under Title 11A while most towns inside it do not.
Permanent employees carry layoff rights. In a layoff, rights are determined by permanent status and seniority within the affected unit, displacement into another title can be available, and laid-off employees go onto a special reemployment list that takes priority when the title is filled again. None of that applies to provisional or temporary service.
Your title, not your assignment, defines what you are supposed to be doing. If the duties you actually perform drift outside the specification for the title you hold, that is a classification question rather than a management preference, and an employee can ask for the position to be reviewed and reclassified. It is one of the quieter protections in the system and one of the least used.
Countywide civil service employers in Bergen County
Bergen County is the county government itself, so its civil service status covers county employees rather than anyone working for a town inside the county. Municipalities, libraries, authorities and districts each decide separately, and most of the county's towns are not in the listing at all.
Two other countywide bodies in Bergen County are in the listing as well. They are separate employers with separate hiring, and a candidate list certified to one is not certified to another.
- Bergen County Board of Social Services, board of social services
- Bergen County Utilities Authority, municipal utilities authority
Civil service titles used by New Jersey county governments
Real classifications that New Jersey county governments draw on, each linked to its official specification: the definition of the work, the requirements, and any licence the title depends on. A sample of the system rather than a roster or a list of openings.
Civil service coverage across Bergen County
Bergen County holds 50 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 21 municipalities, 20 public libraries, 4 boards of health, 1 board of social services, 1 county government, 1 housing authority, 1 school district, and 1 municipal utilities authority.
21 of the county's 70 municipalities are among them.
Also in the directory: Garfield Library, Hackensack, Hackensack Library, Lodi Borough, Lodi Housing Authority, Lodi Library, Lodi School District, Moonachie Borough. See all 50 in Bergen County.
Common questions about Bergen County
Is Bergen County a civil service employer?
Yes. Bergen County appears in the New Jersey Civil Service Commission's listing of local civil service system jurisdictions as of July 2024, which makes it an appointing authority under Title 11A. Permanent appointments to competitive titles there come from eligible lists the Commission certifies, rather than from purely local hiring.
Is there always a written test?
No. New Jersey runs both assembled examinations, where candidates are scheduled to sit a test, and unassembled ones, where a reviewer scores your education and experience against the requirements in the specification and there is no test day at all. The announcement says which kind it is. For an unassembled examination the application itself is the examination, so how fully you describe your experience is the score.
Does permanent status transfer to another civil service employer?
Not automatically. Permanent status belongs to a title at a particular appointing authority, so moving to another jurisdiction usually means a new appointment and a new working test period. Intergovernmental transfers between civil service employers are possible in the same or a comparable title, but they need agreement on both sides rather than being a right you can exercise.
How many Bergen County employees are in a State pension system?
2,229 active memberships are reported through Bergen County, split across 1,627 in PERS and 602 in PFRS. This counts pension enrolment rather than payroll, so employees who are not in one of these funds are not included.
What is the median pensionable salary at Bergen County?
$65,864, with the middle half of members between $45,691 and $107,659. These figures are pensionable salary reported to the NJ Division of Pensions and Benefits for the four most recent quarters, not total pay and not take-home pay. It excludes overtime and most supplemental pay, and it is before tax, before the member's own pension contribution and before health premiums.
How does pay at Bergen County compare with the rest of Bergen County?
Its median pensionable salary of $65,864 sits at the 4th percentile among the 25 civil service jurisdictions in Bergen County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $80,210. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Bergen County?
The median enrolled member has 9.9 years of credited service, and 24% have passed twenty years. Credited service drives both retirement eligibility and the pension formula, so a long-tenured workforce usually means fewer open competitive appointments in the near term.