With municipal careers the pay is at least enough to live in your community on your own, even if you're stuck renting below supervisor positions (5+ years). They try to get everyone their 40 hours a week and the benefits package is usually better than private sector jobs. The lack of a profit motive makes everything so much nicer despite budgets becoming the limiting factor. Being able to easily transfer departments under the same pension track means you can focus on whatever local issues or fields seems most interesting at that stage of your life. Whatever seasonal jobs your regional towns/cities have are just a way to get into the system with preferential hiring. If you have a local workforce development centre they're a great way to get in with the city/county.