The number of full-time local government workers employed outside of New York City is shrinking.
According to a media release from New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, that number shrank 7.9% — from 491,102 to 452,298 — during the period from 2007 through 2022. New York’s decline in local government employment stands in contrast to the nation as a whole, which saw a 2% increase in the number of full-time employees over the 15-year period.
Local government workforce levels were most impacted by two key events during that time — the Great Recession of 2007-09 and the COVID-19 pandemic, the release said.
“We all rely on local government employees for essential services such as education, public safety, health care and much more,” DiNapoli said. “But local governments were hard hit by two major events, most recently the pandemic, that have taken their toll on staffing levels. Local officials must continue to meet the difficult task of balancing their budgets while making certain they have the staff in place to ensure critical services are there for their residents.”
DiNapoli’s report shows the state’s full-time local government workforce outside New York City decreased by 50,000 workers (11.1%) since the end of the Great Recession. While that was similar to the national trend, New York experienced more year-over-year volatility and a longer period of overall economic decline. As full-time workforce numbers were starting to rebound, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to another reduction. While billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief aid to local governments and school districts likely helped employment numbers recover some in 2022, they remain below 2009 levels, according to the release.
DiNapoli’s report also found the following for full-time local government workers outside New York City:
• Regionally, more local employees worked upstate (55%) as opposed to downstate in 2022. Upstate local governments employed 415 workers per 10,000 residents, significantly more than downstate (381).
• Funding from various federal emergency relief programs, as well as the restoration of state aid cuts and a rebound in sales tax collections, helped many local governments through the pandemic, enabling them to restore full-time staffing to near pre-pandemic levels in 2022. Despite this, overall employment was still below 2009 levels.
• School districts were the largest local government employer in 2022, with 271,611 full-time workers, of which more than two-thirds were instructional staff. Counties were second, with 92,413 employees, followed by cities and villages (54,395), and towns (28,418).
• The average annual salary for full-time local government employees was about $76,700 in 2022, up from about $53,900 in 2007. However, after adjusting for inflation, the average annual salary was nearly flat with an overall increase of 2.1% from 2007 to 2022.
• Workers employed in police protection were the highest paid local government employees in 2022, with an average annual salary of $104,742, followed by fire protection employees ($91,300). Public welfare employees had the lowest average annual salary at $59,133.