Rhode Island Has Lost Most Government Jobs in Country Since 2007
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Despite claims of government being too large in Rhode Island, the Ocean State has actually lost the most government jobs (in percentage terms) in the country since 2007, according to a new study.
The study factored in all city, state and federal government jobs, comparing the numbers in September 2007 to the numbers of September 2011. In total, Rhode Island lost about 4,400 government jobs over four years, ranking 33rd among states in jobs lost. The state now has about 59,900 government employees.
The 6.84 percent reduction over four years is the highest in the country, with Nevada being the only other state to have at least 6 percent of its government workforce cut.
22 states, including New Hampshire, actually saw government jobs increase over four years, according to the study. Wyoming, Washington D.C., Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota topped the list of increased government jobs since 2007.
Carcieri’s Drastic Cuts
Among the states cutting the most government jobs were California, Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Georgia. In New England, only Connecticut and Maine reduced their size of government more than Rhode Island in terms of pure numbers.
The state’s reduction in its government workforce came under Republican Governor Don Carcieri, who followed through on a pledge to cut government jobs during his time in office. However, during that same time span, the nation’s economy collapsed, the unemployment rate skyrocketed and Rhode Island was one of the hardest-hit states in the country during the recession.
“We often hear conservatives talk about the job killing policies of the left: environmental regulation, tax reform, financial regulation, the provision of public services,” Brock said. “They are quick to forget that the state is an employer. They are quick to forget that public employees are taxpayers, and consumers who frequent our states business and inject their government paychecks back into our economy. Governor Carcieri's drastic cuts to the state workforce were job killing, not only for the former state workers who are now unemployed, but to the thousands of businesses throughout the state that out of work Rhode Islanders can no longer afford to patronize.”
Eroding the Workforce
Government jobs have continued to decline month after month in the Ocean State. According to URI economist Leonard Lardaro, who publishes a monthly report on the state’s economy, government employment shrunk by 2.6 percent in August.
By comparison, Connecticut has about four times as many government workers as Rhode Island and only reduced its workforce by 3.4 percent since 2007. Massachusetts’ numbers remained nearly the identical from four years ago, dropping just .62 percent.
And Brock isn’t the only one criticizing the amount of jobs lost in the Ocean State. National Education Association Government Relations Director Patrick Crowley said Governor Carcieri was supposed to increase private sector job creation, but failed to do so.
“The decade of the 2000's, led by Conservative Don Carcieri here in Rhode Island devastated the local economy by eroding the workforce from the ground up,” Crowley said. “It was supposed to spur private sector job creation - well, the working class and the middle class are still waiting for the jobs while Don Carcieri and his buddies are laughing all the way to the bank.”
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Comments:
Michael Trenn
10:02am on Saturday, October 29, 2011
Crowley is almost as much of a clown as the Firefighter from Cranston. How does the reduction in public employee numbers benefit the former Governor in a personal way? Prove your point, please, Mr. Crowley. Personally, I think that government functions should privatized, consolidated, and cut back. A valuable approach could be County Government, especially for Tax matters, and Public Safety. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but we have the smallest state in the country.
As far as New Hampshire is concerned, they have twice our population, but they had about half the jobs. They run a lot better than we do! If they added a few, so what. We need to cut MORE state jobs, not fewer.
Patrick L
11:45am on Saturday, October 29, 2011
Dan, you use statistics to show that RI lost the most jobs in the country, as a percentage. However, using the number you cite, it still shows that 1 in every 17.5 people, is a RI state employee. That is "people". That 17.5 includes children and retirees. That is a HUGE number of employees.
As for Crowley, it's funny that he and his people continually blame George Bush for Obama's failings, however Carcieri isn't allowed to use any of that, or the national economy that changed after Carcieri took office. Which is it, both guys can use excuses or neither one can?
Lastly, those states that Dan cites as increasing jobs over the last few years are states that are actually growing their economy. So it makes sense that they'd be gaining employees. New Hampshire is one of the states with the fewest personal liberty restriction laws and one of the more pro-business states. So it is growing. North Dakota is the current darling of economy growth. To compare Rhode Island to either of those states is like comparing apples to dump trucks.
Gary Arnold
9:40am on Monday, October 31, 2011
Ever notice how RI responds to economic downturns? It yells that we need more government workers to handle less work but doesn't impact the lack of job production in RI. It just shows how frail the state is as far as working on it's own and rebuilding the RI economy. It can't.
Lance Chappell
2:10pm on Monday, October 31, 2011
RI has been the largest employer which explains why the taxes have been going up year after year. There was an expansion of public hiring jobs that the previous governmor halted. This population of government workers has been slowly increasing after the mass retirements a few years ago but there is still a need to cut this state budget back further. The government simply cannot continue to be the primary employer - the private sector must be encouraged to settle and expand here but that will only happen when the taxes come down. We are not competitive with other states!! NH is whipping our butts. Crowley is a class clown and needs no further attention.