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Census Data Reveals Where State Government Employment Is Shrinking

With low growth in state government employment, some state workforces and job types are facing cuts.

Even as the total number of people working in state government inches upward, a few state workforces and specific employment sectors are shrinking.

That’s according to new 2016 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Though total state government employment rose by about 22,000 nationwide (measured in full-time equivalence) from 2015 to 2016, several states saw their figures drop.

The states that saw the largest declines were Alaska, which cut its workforce 4.8 percent, Hawaii (3 percent cut), Maryland (2.7 percent), Montana (2.7 percent) and Illinois (2.6 percent).

The data also shows a decrease in some types of jobs from 2009 to 2016, while other sectors grew. Most notably, higher education and public transit employment increased by 6.6 and 2.3 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, social insurance administration jobs fell away faster than any other category, dropping 12.5 percent from 2009 to 2016. Highways, corrections and miscellaneous government administration jobs all fell by more than 9 percent each.

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Ben Miller is the associate editor of data and business for Government Technology. His reporting experience includes breaking news, business, community features and technical subjects. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, and lives in Sacramento, Calif.