NC Adds State Employees While Private Jobs are Lost

Yesterday I posted a short article detailing the employment trends in NC state government versus the state’s private sector since 2001. As most of you likely suspect, the trends show that state jobs grew at a relatively healthy pace while the private sector shed 50,000 jobs.

Here’s the details from the article:

The number of state government employees in North Carolina has risen at a healthy clip at the same time the private sector lost 50,000 jobs.

North Carolina state government added 34,824 full-time equivalent positions from 2001 through 2009, an increase of 12.3%. Conversely, North Carolina’s private sector shed 49,900 jobs during that time, a workforce reduction of 1.6%.

These divergent employment trends mean that the number of private sector workers to each state employee has dropped from 11.4 to 10.

With North Carolina facing massive – and growing – pension and retiree benefits liabilities, forcing fewer private sector workers to shoulder a growing burden of state workers and future retirees heavily weighs down any potential for future economic growth. Trends like these are simply unsustainable.