09/03/13 California Predicament

The US Census Bureau released its annual survey of government employment.  Its based on data from March 2011.

It’s quite revealing.

Federal, state and local governments employ 22.2 million people.  2.9 million in federal, 5.3 million in state, and 14 million in local government.

California has the highest percentage of its population employed by the state or local government at a whopping 11.1%.  The next two are Texas at 8.3% and New York at 7.0 %.

[The March 2011 US population was 311,262,429. The total number of state and local government employees was 19,301,588.  Nationally, the average is 6.2%.]

In terms of average annual salary, DC has the highest at $72,828; California is 2nd with $71,424 and New Jersey is third at $67,548.

California is among the top three in both categories.  Compared to rest of the nation, California employs nearly double the national average.  And it has the second highest annual salary.  36% higher than the national average.

This is a contributing reason why California is on the verge of economic collapse.  Making matters worse, its high tax and high regulation environment has driven businesses and high income residents —  its biggest tax base — to flee the state. 

There are other indicators of economic stress.  California has the 4th highest home foreclosure rate. Its ranked 5th from the bottom in improvement of its unemployment rate. And it has the 5th highest increase in adding people to the food stamp rolls.

[California is also considered one the nation’s death spiral states.]

California has too many people feeding from the government trough.

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