Hunterdon County
County Government · Hunterdon County
435 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Hunterdon County, reporting a median pensionable salary of $58,748.
Hunterdon County is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a county government in Hunterdon County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Hunterdon County has 1 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 1 civil service jurisdictions in Hunterdon County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Hunterdon County
435 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Hunterdon 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 | 388 | 89% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 47 | 11% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 47 police officers. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Hunterdon County actually appoints.
4 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 Hunterdon County.
Pensionable salary at Hunterdon County
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Hunterdon County reports a pensionable salary above $58,748 and half below, across 435 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $37,260 |
| 25th percentile | $47,435 |
| Median | $58,748 |
| 75th percentile | $77,402 |
| 90th percentile | $98,146 |
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.
Against the 20 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 40th 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 Hunterdon County
The median enrolled member at Hunterdon County has 8.3 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 2.8 and 20.5 years. 26% 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 | 164 | 38% |
| 5 to 10 years | 77 | 18% |
| 10 to 15 years | 43 | 10% |
| 15 to 20 years | 37 | 9% |
| 20 to 25 years | 56 | 13% |
| 25 years or more | 58 | 13% |
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 Hunterdon County, 58% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 138 | 32% |
| Tier 2 | 6 | 1% |
| Tier 3 | 33 | 8% |
| Tier 4 | 4 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 254 | 58% |
What civil service status means for jobs at Hunterdon 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.
A permanent appointment starts with a working test period. You hold the title, you draw the salary, and you can still be released for unsatisfactory performance without the full removal process. Permanent status, and the job protection that comes with it, begins only once that period is completed satisfactorily.
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.
Countywide civil service employers in Hunterdon County
Hunterdon 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.
It is the only Hunterdon County entry in the Commission's listing of any kind. No municipality, library, authority or district in the county has adopted the system, so Hunterdon County civil service employment means county employment and nothing else.
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 Hunterdon County
Hunterdon County holds 1 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 1 county government.
0 of the county's 26 municipalities are among them.
Common questions about Hunterdon County
Is Hunterdon County a civil service employer?
Yes. Hunterdon 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.
Do veterans get a preference on these lists?
Yes, and in New Jersey it is unusually strong. On an open competitive list, disabled veterans who pass are ranked ahead of all other candidates, and other veterans who pass are ranked ahead of non-veterans, regardless of score. Preference has to be claimed and verified in advance, and it does not carry over to promotional examinations.
How many Hunterdon County employees are in a State pension system?
435 active memberships are reported through Hunterdon County, split across 388 in PERS and 47 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 Hunterdon County?
$58,748, with the middle half of members between $47,435 and $77,402. 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 long do people stay at Hunterdon County?
The median enrolled member has 8.3 years of credited service, and 26% 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.