10 States Where An Absurd Pct Of The Popul. Works For Govt

Originally posted by zeeblebot
and the winner is: Wyoming, at 22 pct!

don't worry sh76 no1m et al, NY is in there at 16.3 pct or so, ranked #9.

Wyoming and Alaska are two of the least populated states in the union.

Last time I checked Wyoming has about half a million people for their total population, so I wouldn't get too excited about those numbers.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
scratch that, it says the 22 pct is a percentage of total workers, not total population. but it's state and local employees so the federal component is still missing in the 22 pct.

Federal workers make up a small portion of all government workers (except maybe in DC) so it probably wouldn't bring the percentage up much. The big one is local government. That's teachers and public service (e.g., firefighters, police officers).

Originally posted by mwmiller
Wyoming and Alaska are two of the least populated states in the union.

Last time I checked Wyoming has about half a million people for their total population, so I wouldn't get too excited about those numbers.

Well, the counterargument to that would be that those states still have a disproportionate amount of government workers relative to other states.

Personally, I don't think it matters much. Both of those states have a lot of public lands. I would expect a lot of state and federal government employees just from that alone.

Also that article is silly to compare state and local government to Greece. It's not the number of people working for the government that's the problem in Greece. It's the exorbitant compensation relative to tax revenues that's the problem.

Originally posted by mwmiller
Wyoming and Alaska are two of the least populated states in the union.

Last time I checked Wyoming has about half a million people for their total population, so I wouldn't get too excited about those numbers.

NY is also in the top ten, at 16 pct.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
NY is also in the top ten, at 16 pct.

Do you really call that ''absurd''?

Originally posted by telerion
Federal workers make up a small portion of all government workers (except maybe in DC) so it probably wouldn't bring the percentage up much. The big one is local government. That's teachers and public service (e.g., firefighters, police officers).

DC only has 50K. Virginia and Maryland each have more than Texas (300K, 280K, and 250K). California has most at 344K. NY has 160K. you guys are getting cheated!

2006 Federal Employees by State

http://www.theyworkforus.org/documents/FedEmployeesStats.pdf

wait, i mixed you up with sh76. i guess you're not in NY.

Wyoming has 7468 federal workers (2006). population for 2006 was 514000. that's 1.5 pct.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
Wyoming has 7468 federal workers (2006). population for 2006 was 514000. that's 1.5 pct.

scratch that, that's the entire population.

working population in WY for 2006 was 284,987 (avg).

so feds were 2.6 pct of the working population.

that accounts for the round up to 25 pct that our Doubting Thomas (whoever it was) was questioning, back up the thread.

http://doe.state.wy.us/lmi/LAUS/06bmk.htm

Originally posted by zeeblebot
scratch that, that's the entire population.

working population in WY for 2006 was 284,987 (avg).

so feds were 2.6 pct of the working population.

that accounts for the round up to 25 pct that our Doubting Thomas (whoever it was) was questioning, back up the thread.

http://doe.state.wy.us/lmi/LAUS/06bmk.htm

So in the leading, it includes those 2,6%, but in the article itself it doesn't?

Why is it a problem that 14,1% of the workers works for the government?
Which jobs shouldn't be there, and why aren't those needed?

What is your point.

Originally posted by Thomaster
So in the leading, it includes those 2,6%, but in the article itself it doesn't?

these are an independent set of stats. the article in the original post is for state and local public employees only, so we had to find the federal employment of Wyoming elsewhere on the web, and add it in, to get the figure for total public employment in Wyoming.

Originally posted by Thomaster
Why is it a problem that 14,1% of the workers works for the government?
Which jobs shouldn't be there, and why aren't those needed?

What is your point.

we won't find out which jobs aren't needed unless we cut revenue til they're squealing.

although, i guess that wouldn't work, they squeal anyway, hurting or not, to ensure increased funding in the future. it's all a charade.

Originally posted by zeeblebot
these are an independent set of stats. the article in the original post is for state and local public employees only, so we had to find the federal employment of Wyoming elsewhere on the web, and add it in, to get the figure for total public employment in Wyoming.

I was talking about your first link.

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-states-where-an-insane-percentage-of-people-work-for-uncle-sam-2010-6

It says some states have almost 25%, even though the winner has 22%.