Government Keeps Hiring

Cynthia Barnett | 12/1/2008

The Port St. Lucie area had the highest growth in all government jobs statewide, at 5.4%, as well as in local-government jobs, at 5.2% But the area also shows how local governments could be simultaneously adding jobs and experiencing layoffs. St. Lucie, one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States between 2000 and 2007, opened six schools in the past three years to deal with its expanding student population. Florida’s class-size amendment, passed by voters in 2002, limits the number of students to 18 in pre-K through third-grade classes; 22 in fourth to eighth grade; and 25 in high school.

Over the past year, Florida’s private sector cut 129,500 jobs. The state’s public sector added 9,800 jobs:

Florida Government Employment Government Jobs
Branch	Sept. 2007	Sept. 2008	Jobs Change (statewide)
Local	796,300	804,300	+1.0%
State	216,900	215,300	-0.07
Federal	127,400	130,800	+2.7
Total Govt.	1,140,600	1,150,400	+0.86
Source: Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation

Even as the St. Lucie School District added staff to fill schools, county government trimmed 250 jobs over the past year in areas from libraries to veterans services to environmental-resources protection. The county, which had more than 1,000 positions, is now down to 720 workers — the same number it employed in 2001, even though the county’s population has grown by 40% in that time.

“We’ve frozen; we’ve eliminated; we’ve shifted staff around; and we haven’t been able to provide salary increases, which is abysmal in this economy,” says County Commission Chairman Joe Smith. “We have a 20% smaller workforce with the same or larger demands on government services, and like every other Floridian, we’re trying to find ways to tighten the belt even more.”

Tourism, agriculture and home building may be the big revenue generators for Florida’s economy, but they don’t provide the most jobs. Florida’s top three employment sectors:

Top Employment Sectors in Florida Top Sectors
Sector	Jobs
Trade/ transportation/ utilities	1,564,200
Professional/business	1,275,200
Government	1,150,400
Source: Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation (data not seasonally adjusted)

Tags: Politics & Law, Government/Politics & Law