Government Employment -- Part II

As a follow-up to my previous post, I wondered how New Jersey's public sector growth compared with population growth, so I dropped in on the Census Bureau. Here's what I found for each of the states mentioned.

	Dec-03
State	Population	pop growth 4/01-7/03	Annual rate
Connecticut	3,483,372	2.3%	1.0%
New York	19,190,115	1.1%	0.5%
Pennsylvania	12,365,455	0.7%	0.3%
Maryland	5,508,909	4.0%	1.8%
Delaware	817,491	4.3%	1.9%
New Jersey	8,638,396	2.7%	1.2%
United States	290,809,777	3.3%	1.5%
	Census Data

So, New Jersey's population didn't grow quite as quickly as MD, DE, or the country as a whole, but did exceed NY, PA, and CT. So far so good, NJ doesn't really stand out from the crowd. But then, compare the change in public sector employment to the change in population and a completely different story emerges:

	% Change
State	Public Sector	Population	Delta
Connecticut	-0.4%	1.0%	-1.4%
New York	-0.3%	0.5%	-0.8%
Pennsylvania	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
Maryland	0.7%	1.8%	-1.1%
Delaware	1.0%	1.9%	-0.9%
New Jersey	2.7%	1.2%	1.5%
United States	0.8%	1.5%	-0.7%

Even Pennsylvania, the only other state with public sector growth greater than population growth, kept it close. Each of the other states significantly improved their situations. Unfortunately, percentages don't give you a real feel for the numbers, as bad as they look above. Make sure you are seated with your seat belt fastened when you read this next table.

	Change
State	Public Sector	Population	pop/public
Connecticut	(1,000)	35,608	(36)
New York	(4,800)	93,818	(20)
Pennsylvania	3,100	38,470	12
Maryland	3,300	97,936	30
Delaware	600	15,623	26
New Jersey	17,100	103,661	6
United States	172,000	4,265,210	25

On average we added one public sector employee for every 25 new Americans. Combined, the other states in our region added one public sector employee for every 235 new people (driven by the big reductions in CT and NY). Here in New Jersey, we added one public sector employee for every six new residents! By that standard, my family of six should have its very own public servant dedicated to our needs, full time. I haven't seen or heard from this person yet, but will be sure to post as soon as I do.