EMPLOYMENT (GENERAL); STATE OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; STATISTICAL INFORMATION;

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES - STATE;

You wanted to know the size of the state workforce and how it compares to the workforce eight years ago.

There are two primary ways of determining the number of state employees: (1) the Office of Policy and Management’s (OPM) State Personnel Status Report, which tracks permanent, full-time employees, and (2) the number of employees actively contributing to a state employee retirement fund, which includes part-time workers.

The OPM personnel report indicates there were:

• 53,866 permanent, full-time state employees on January 31, 1995, and

• 51,536 employees as of April 30, 2003. See Chart 1 for year-to-year count of permanent full-time positions.

While the number of full-time employees has decreased, it appears the number of part-time employees has increased. This is shown by the number of employees actively contributing to the state’s employee retirement funds (see Chart 2). This figure has increased from 1994 to 2002. There were:

• 62,012 active contributors as of June 30, 1994, and

• 71,291 as of June 30, 2002.

The count of active contributors to a retirement fund indicates full- and part-time employees but not retired employees who come back to work for the state for 120 days a year or less. They are not “active” retirement fund members, they are retirees, i. e. fund recipients.

Table 1 shows a comparison of full-time employees in 1995 to 2003 by function area. These function areas may cover more than one state department. For example “General Government” covers all the state constitutional officers and the departments of Revenue Services, Veterans’ Affairs, Administrative Services, Public Works, and others.

Other functions and the departments they encompass are:

• Regulation: Public Safety, Labor, Consumer Protection, and Human Rights and Opportunities;

• Conservation: Environmental Protection, Agriculture, Economic and Community Development;

• Health: Public Health, Mental Retardation, and Mental Health and Addiction Services;

• Correction: Parole, Children and Families, and Correction; and

• Judicial: Public Defender, Probate Court Administration, and Judicial.

Chart 1. Permanent, Full-Time State Employees

Chart 2. Number of State Employees Contributing to a

Retirement Plan

Table 1. Employee Breakdown by Function

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