From 2000 to 2009, 72 of North Carolina’s 100 county governments grew their workforce at a faster pace than their respective private sector employment.
Furthermore, 59 county governments expanded their payrolls at a rate that exceeded the county’s population growth over the same period.
Some of the most glaring examples of unchecked county government expansion include:
- Hoke County – County officials more than doubled the county government workforce from 2000 to 2009, a rate roughly 10 times that of the anemic 11 percent job growth in Hoke’s private sector. Meanwhile, the county’s population grew by only 37 percent.
- Yancey County – From 2000 to 2009, Yancey County’s population grew by only 4 percent and its private sector workforce shrank by 25 percent. Amazingly, however, during that time the number of county government workers rose by 81 percent.
- Alamance County – Even though the county suffered the loss of 18 percent of its private sector workforce from 2000 to 2009, the number of county government workers rose by a healthy 55 percent, a rate more than four times faster than the county’s population growth rate of 13 percent.
In total, the number of county government workers in North Carolina grew at a 13 percent pace from 2000 to 2009. At the same time, however, the size of North Carolina’s private sector workforce dropped by nearly 4 percent. The 13 percent county government employment growth rate is slightly less than the statewide population growth rate of 16 percent over the same period.
Click here to view an excel chart of government growth versus county and population private sector sorted by county
While the expansion of county government was a consistent theme over the past decade, 20 county governments in North Carolina did manage to trim their number of county employees from 2000 to 2009. Interestingly, 13 of those 20 counties who reduced the number of county employees did so at a time when their county population actually increased.
Counties That Trimmed County Government Workforce As Population Increased
|
County |
Percent Change in County Government Workforce |
Population Growth |
|
Beaufort |
-22.4% |
5.4% |
|
Bertie |
-19.4% |
1.7% |
|
Burke |
-3.2% |
0.6% |
|
Catawba |
-15.6% |
10.8% |
|
Cumberland |
-3.8% |
6% |
|
Graham |
-14% |
4.2% |
|
Guilford |
-4.7% |
13.1% |
|
Mitchell |
-27.4% |
1.8% |
|
Onslow |
-13.6% |
19.4% |
|
Stokes |
-0.7% |
4.7% |
|
Surry |
-5.7% |
3.7% |
|
Swain |
-6.0% |
6.8% |
|
Wayne |
-4.9% |
2.9% |
That 20 percent of county governments across North Carolina have been able to reduce the size of their government workforce at a time when most counties have been expanding employee rolls at a pace that exceeds both county population growth and private sector job growth should give one pause.
Especially in light of the current economic crisis, elected officials throughout North Carolina need to take a cue from those counties who are successfully doing more with less.
Report Card on Employee Growth
The Civitas Institute examined all 100 North Carolina counties, and graded them based on their county employee growth from 2000 to 2009 relative to the county’s population growth.
Among the state’s counties, 13 received a grade of “A,” 7 received a “B,” 33 received a “C,” 24 received a “D,” and 23 more received an “F.”
The grading scale for the study is as follows:
A – counties that managed to shrink their government workforce while their population increased
B – counties that shrank their government workforce while their population also shrank
C – counties that grew their government workforce at a rate either less than the rate of their population growth, or at a rate less than twice the rate of population growth
D – counties that grew their government workforce more than twice (but less than four times) the rate of their population growth
F – counties that grew their government workforce despite a drop in the county’s population; or grew their government workforce more than four times the rate of the county’s population growth
To see the grades and data for all 100 North Carolina counties, click here.
Grade of D for Buncombe County is not accurate. Most the additional jobs were for those that had lost jobs, because of republican shenaigans.
While private businesses (and families) have gotten leaner and more efficient to stay afloat it is a crying shame that county gov’t cannot do the same. Jobs for votes?