This post is the final discussion of the spreadsheet of the U.S. Census Bureau’s state and local government employment and payroll data, which is linked from this post. The data can be downloaded by following the link. In March 2010, U.S state governments employed just under 1,400 full time equivalent workers per 100,000 U.S. residents, a small number compared with the nearly 4,000 local government workers, and more than 5,500 workers in the private health care, social services, and heavy construction sectors, which are substantially government-funded.
The three levels of government may be described this way: the federal government takes in the most money, but sends it right back out again in payments to individuals (Social Security, interest on the debt), the private sector (Medicare), and aid to the states. It actually does very little other than national defense and the Post Office. Local governments do most of the work actually done by government workers. State governments, however, make most of the decisions on the margin, control how local governments do their work, and supply much of their funding. The primary work of state governments, as opposed to work done by local governments and the private sector in part with state money, are state colleges and universities, state correctional institutions, and state hospitals (mostly mental hospitals). These three functions accounted for nearly 60.0% of all U.S. state government employment in March 2010. A discussion of how the State of New York compares follows.
Overall, the State of New York employed 1,212 full time equivalent workers per 100,000 residents in March 2010, well below the U.S. average of 1,393 and the average of 1,396 in New Jersey. (Note that state-run mass transit and public elementary and secondary schools have been deleted from this data and added into local government, to make it comparable across states). State government employment fell from 2002 to 2010 in the U.S. and New York State while rising in New Jersey.
A quick look at the data, however, shows that the State of New York’s lower overall employment level can be entirely explained by lower than average employment in its colleges and universities. These employed 273 workers by 100,000 residents in New York State (including SUNY and CUNY but excluding community colleges, which are classified as local government). The U.S. average was much higher at 546; New Jersey was 385.
Historically, relatively few New York State residents have attended public rather than private colleges. While other states’ land grant colleges are the public University of Texas or University of Wisconsin, New York’s is the private Cornell University. New York became the 48th of then 48 states when it founded a state university system, SUNY, in 1948. C.U.N.Y., now state run, is older, but nearly all C.U.N.Y. universities and colleges were started in 1930 or after. New York State, therefore, doesn’t have less state government college and university employment because it is more efficient. It has less because New York State is providing higher education to a smaller share of its residents, relative to private colleges and universities.
Speaking of efficiency, for both New York State and the United States, in March 2010, March 2002 and every prior year I have tabulated this data, and for both state government-run colleges and universities and local government-run community colleges, the number of non-instructional employees exceeded the number of instructional employees. Since the whole purpose of these organizations is higher education, which is provided by the instructional employees, this looks rather bad. One possible explanation is that many of those teaching in public higher education are not counted as employees (and thus do not show up in the data), but rather are taken on as freelance contract laborers. But if S.U.N.Y. and C.U.N.Y. really do have 174 people doing something other than teaching for every 100 teaching, the case for on-line higher education becomes overwhelming.
In addition to a lower than average level of higher educational employment, the State of New York has lower than average employment in categories with a state/local overlap, because of work shifted to local governments. The State of New York had only 25 Public Welfare employees per 100,000 residents, compared with 76 for the U.S. and 102 for New Jersey, because the City of New York and the counties administrate the New York State’s public welfare programs. The person New Yorkers go to see to apply for welfare, Medicaid or housing assistance is thus a local government worker, not a state government worker, and New York’s local government employment in this category is higher compared with the U.S. average.
Similarly, the State of New York employs only 63 Highway workers per 100,000 residents, compared with 75 for the U.S. and 71 for New Jersey. But in New York City, which accounts for 40.0% of the state’s population, there are very, very few state highways, and their maintenance and reconstruction is overseen by New York City DOT along with the rest of the city’s roads, bridges and highways, in part with state money. While local government employment in this category is nonetheless well below average in NYC, it is very, very high in the rest of New York State despite being supplemented by state highway department workers.
And, the State of New York had just 33 state police employees per 100,000 residents, compared with 37 for the U.S. and 49 in New Jersey. But New York’s number is larger than it seems, given that nearly all state police employees work in Upstate New York.
The State of New York had 164 corrections employees per 100,000 residents in 2010, above the U.S. average of 153 despite New York’s relatively low crime rate and prison population. And it had 227 state hospital employees compared with a U.S. average of 133. Each figure was smaller in New York in 2010 compared with 2002, but not as much as could be justified according to press reports, as many state prisons and hospitals are underutilized. They are kept open, according to these reports, as part of a jobs program for Upstate New York, where most were located because of the lower cost of living in that part of the state.
In theory, in fact, the big economic differences between high-wage, high-cost Downstate New York and low-wage, low cost Upstate New York should make many state services more affordable. They could be paid for, in large part, by the large Downstate tax base, but located primarily in low cost Upstate were the dollar, at least theoretically, went further. It is difficult to evaluate the differences between New York State and the U.S. in pay per employee, without knowing what share of state workers in each function are located in each part of the state. We can say that in almost every function, average March 2010 payroll per full time equivalent worker was higher for New York State than for the average of all U.S. states. The overall average for March 2010 payroll per full-time equivalent employee was $5,319 for the State of New York, $5,487 for (high-wage, high-cost) New Jersey, and $4,460 for all state governments in the U.S.
Getting back to employment, a few more differences stand out. The State of New York has the New York State Power Authority, with nine workers per 100,000 state residents, and most states do not have an equivalent (though many local governments elsewhere do). The State of New York had 112 judicial and legal employees per 100,000 state residents, while the national average was less than half at 57. (Local government judicial and legal employment was below average in New York State, but not to the same extent that state employment was higher). And New York’s state employment in the Natural Resources category, at 17 per 100,000 residents, was far below the U.S. average of 45 or even New Jersey at 23.