In looking into the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, here’s what we found: the Kansas private sector economy is struggling, losing 14,600 jobs over the past year. However, the taxpayer-paid government workforce does not seem to be sharing in the pain that private workers face. During the last year, taxpayer supported jobs in Kansas increased 7,500. In fact, government employment is at an all-time high in Kansas: 267,200 jobs.

Local governments continue to grow at the greatest rate, despite a virtual standstill in overall state population growth. Since January 2001, local government has added 16,600 new jobs at a total cost of about $581 million. In other words, if Kansas had the same number of local governments that it did back in 2001, we would have saved an additional $581 million per year.

Some other facts about our government employees, compared to other states:

Utah and Arkansas are states closest in population size to Kansas. Arkansas has 2.855 million to Kansas’ 2.802 million and Utah’s 2.74 million, ranked 33rd, 34th and 35th. However, the number of taxpayer supported workers is drastically higher in Kansas, consider:

Government Employment
* Kansas: 267,200
* Arkansas: 216,100
* Utah: 215,700

Ratio of Government Employment to Population

1990
Kansas: 8.6%
Utah: 8.6%
Arkansas: 6.9%

2009
Kansas: 9.5%
Utah: 7.9%
Arkansas: 7.6%

* All workforce numbers provided by BLS.Gov and Population Data by Census.Gov