The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) has compiled a list of gains/losses of federal jobs by state since 1990. In general, the figures show that the overall number of jobs in each state has declined. The numbers are compiled from US Census data.
So why the decline? There are a couple of possibilities.
In the 1990s under Clinton, the federal workforce declined. Clinton pledged to reduce the size of the federal workforce by at least 100,000 by the end of 1995, largely through attrition.
Another causal factor: an increase in government contract work. During the 1990s, the government saw an increasing trend towards contracting out more work rather than hiring or utilizing federal employees which undoubtedly had the effect over time of shrinking the federal workforce. One argument in favor of the increased contract labor is that it can be difficult to fire non-performing federal employees, whereas contractors can replace a problem employee more quickly and easily than a federal employee can be removed. However, many would disagree with this notion and there are certainly examples of how removing an employee can be done.
If an increase in contract labor has indeed contributed to lowering the number of full-time federal employees, it is somewhat ironic then that a recent study found that the government pays more in contract labor than keeping the work in-house.
Whatever the cause for the generally trending lower numbers, you can see a breakdown of the number of federal jobs in each state and how they have fared in the last 20 years in the table below.
|
State |
Fed jobs in 1990 |
Fed jobs in 2000 |
Fed jobs in |
# Fed jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dist. of Columbia |
212,031 |
180,969 |
45,809 |
-166,222 |
|
Tennessee |
56,416 |
50,393 |
39,248 |
-17,168 |
|
Pennsylvania |
129,405 |
106,741 |
97,534 |
-31,871 |
|
Wyoming |
6,188 |
6,078 |
7,540 |
-1,352 |
|
New Jersey |
75,142 |
62,272 |
53,631 |
-21,511 |
|
Missouri |
65,541 |
54,546 |
50,869 |
-14,672 |
|
Massachusetts |
60,319 |
52,987 |
45,519 |
-14,800 |
|
Maine |
16,823 |
13,399 |
14,028 |
-2,797 |
|
New York |
152,169 |
133,741 |
111,611 |
-40,588 |
|
California |
314,590 |
247,839 |
238,548 |
-76,042 |
|
Connecticut |
23,615 |
20,939 |
16,937 |
-6,678 |
|
Illinois |
103,999 |
93,902 |
80,449 |
-23,550 |
|
Alabama |
56,622 |
48,409 |
49,348 |
-7,274 |
|
Ohio |
90,861 |
83,970 |
74,843 |
-16,018 |
|
Louisiana |
33,921 |
33,132 |
28,046 |
-5,875 |
|
South Carolina |
32,208 |
26,227 |
27,966 |
-4,242 |
|
Indiana |
41,377 |
37,104 |
36,041 |
-5,336 |
|
Iowa |
17,973 |
18,476 |
15,800 |
-2,173 |
|
Michigan |
56,172 |
57,611 |
50,062 |
-6,110 |
|
Rhode Island |
10,147 |
10,504 |
9,561 |
-586 |
|
Colorado |
53,469 |
50,924 |
50,719 |
-2,750 |
|
Nebraska |
15,298 |
15,145 |
14,428 |
-870 |
|
Kentucky |
35,454 |
30,260 |
33,471 |
-1,983 |
|
Utah |
36,001 |
29,605 |
34,803 |
-1,198 |
|
Kansas |
24,719 |
25,223 |
23,624 |
-1,095 |
|
Minnesota |
32,014 |
34,090 |
30,102 |
-1,912 |
|
Mississippi |
24,354 |
24,047 |
23,321 |
-1,033 |
|
New Hampshire |
8,054 |
7,800 |
7,719 |
-335 |
|
Oregon |
29,202 |
28,556 |
28,378 |
-824 |
|
Wisconsin |
27,425 |
29,752 |
26,453 |
-972 |
|
Arkansas |
19,218 |
20,107 |
19,242 |
24 |
|
Oklahoma |
45,298 |
43,369 |
45,382 |
84 |
|
Texas |
176,680 |
162,399 |
177,923 |
1,243 |
|
Delaware |
5,300 |
5,367 |
5,382 |
82 |
|
North Dakota |
7,815 |
7,772 |
8,003 |
188 |
|
Florida |
111,851 |
113,267 |
121,154 |
9,303 |
|
Washington |
65,033 |
62,004 |
69,647 |
4,614 |
|
Georgia |
88,366 |
88,982 |
95,522 |
7,156 |
|
Virginia |
161,047 |
144,632 |
169,284 |
8,600 |
|
Vermont |
5,072 |
5,779 |
5,786 |
714 |
|
Alaska |
14,537 |
13,997 |
15,454 |
917 |
|
North Carolina |
46,463 |
56,558 |
58,890 |
12,427 |
|
South Dakota |
9,296 |
9,542 |
10,433 |
1,137 |
|
Idaho |
10,057 |
10,741 |
12,601 |
2,544 |
|
Hawaii |
25,414 |
23,251 |
27,690 |
2,276 |
|
Maryland |
133,187 |
130,147 |
143,536 |
10,349 |
|
Nevada |
10,547 |
13,383 |
15,526 |
4,979 |
|
Arizona |
38,985 |
43,479 |
51,420 |
12,435 |
|
New Mexico |
26,242 |
25,357 |
30,597 |
4,355 |
|
West Virginia |
15,377 |
18,409 |
19,465 |
4,088 |
|
Montana |
11,364 |
11,165 |
13,805 |
2,441 |
|
TOTAL |
2,906,416 |
2,624,348 |
2,701,952 |
-204,464 |
