Asbury Park Press, Monday January 9, 2006

State work force grows 16.7% since '99.

By Jason Method
Staff Writer - Asbury Park Press

HELP WANTED: Numerous positions available. Average salary is $59,296. Generous medical and dental insurance coverage at minimal cost. Full pensions on retirement. Low chance of layoffs.

Contact: State of New Jersey.

Interested? Maybe you ought to be. It's a great deal - unless you're a taxpayer who has to pay for it.

The state's telecommunications industry, once the envy of the world, has shed a quarter of its jobs. The pharmaceutical giants have cut back in New Jersey even as they grow elsewhere. But despite annual budget deficit problems and burgeoning state debt, state government is hiring and paying more that the private sector.

The number of full-time state employees is up 16.7 percent since 1999 and nearly 7 percent since 2002, when former Gov. James E. McGreevey said he would be "making government smaller, leaner and more efficient."

In the last two years, the executive branch of state government has added 4,081 jobs, many of those in the Department of Human Services. There are 71,809 employees in the executive branch and 148,500 in all state government operations, such as the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

Yet the state government apparently needs even more help than that. Some 5,000 temporary workers are available for hire on an as-needed basis for up to six months, state data show.

Steven Curtis, a retiree from Tinton Falls, said he doesn't think it's fair that government wages and taxes, continue to rise, while the private sector struggles.

"Why doesn't the governor's staff and political class take a pay cut just like the (airline) pilots did?" Curtis asked. "In this universe, the public servant is the taxpayer. We're working for the people who work for the state. Your mortgage payment is equal to your property tax payment."

At private companies in New Jersey, total employment has not topped 2000's numbers.

Moreover, the average salary for workers in the state government and state agencies is $59,296, nearly $12,000 more than the private sector, where wages average $47,608, federal statistics show.

Politically connected employees can do even better. The 306 members of the Senior Executive Service, some of whom are patronage appointments, have an average salary of $94,898, state data show. Another 361 "government representatives" are paid between $28,560 and$131,197 a year.

James W. Hughes, dean of Rutgers University's School of Planning and Public Policy, said the difference between the government and the private sector is stark when the loss of high-paying private-sector jobs is considered.

New Jersey has lost 27,000 high-paying professional and business jobs since 2000, Hughes said.

Hughes said the corporate and income taxes enacted under McGreevey to support state government have made the state's economy less competitive. He cited drug-maker Pfizer's decision to close a plant in Parsippany and cut 490 pharmaceutical jobs as an example.

"Corporate America, by all economic measures, has been expanding briskly, but it's been outside of New Jersey," Hughes said.

The number of government jobs has increased because "there's always pressure to hire," in government, Hughes added. "You build a new school with a computer lab. So you hire new people for the lab. There's a built-in momentum to add people to build up the bureaucracy. Unless you put in constraints, it will always grow."

Linda S. Yeager of Lawrence is one of the people who used to have a high-paying technology job. The 45-year-old computer programmer earned more than $100,000 a year in Holmdel working at Lucent Technology.

But Yeager was laid off in 2003. She has gone back to school and started job-hunting. Last week, at a job fair at Rutgers University, she said she's noticed that her neighbors who work for the state have all done quite well for themselves financially.

"They seem to be happy." Yeager said, adding that some neighbors "retired and are working for the state as a contractor. They have the best of both worlds, and they work when they want."

Yeager said she still would like to work in the private sector, and may decide to go for a master's degree, but "the public sector is looking better.

Short-handed?

Despite its size, the state's work force is apparently not large enough to complete its mission. The state also hires nearly 5,000 workers for temporary assignments.

The workers are paid on an hourly basis. State rules bar the workers from working more than 944 hours or roughly six months of full-time work, each year.

The hourly workers are paid up to $80 an hour, while 14 earned more, up to $224 an hour, state data show.

Many of the workers are retired state employees collecting pensions. The Department of Environmental Protection listed 1,989 temporary workers, the most among the state's agencies. Human Services followed next, with 1,819.

State law has allowed agencies to hire temporary workers since 1987.

Spokespersons for the departments of Treasury and Personnel said the state does not track how much is spent on temporary workers. When the Asbury Park Press requested a summary of the salary costs from Treasury, the state said it would cost the Press-and any one else from the public--$1,154 for the information.

State Department of Personnel spokeswoman Janeen Lawlor said the workers are used to fill in for staff vacations, staff shortages or other temporary needs.

Lawlor said the temporary workers are often former state workers because they are the people who know the jobs best.

State workers can retire with half of their state salary after 27.5 years.

John W. Knorr, 64, of Galloway Township, Atlantic County, a former state official who used to review local school districts' budgets, has remained active since his 2002 retirement.

Knorr said he returns to work when there is a vacancy among the ranks in his former job in the state-operated County Superintendent of School offices. In 2004, he said he earned $12,000 as a substitute budget review official in Camden County. This year, he only worked sporadically.

Assemblyman Joseph R. Malone III, R-Ocean, a critic of state spending, said he had asked about hourly workers during last year's budget hearings, but never received an answer.

"I am more concerned about people earning in the $80, $90, $100 an hour range," Malone said. "I'm not sure if they are there to work or if this is another form of patronage. I don't think it's legitimate at the high end."

Deep hiring pool

The state and local governments do not have to advertise much to fill open positions. Job applicants come to them by the hundreds and the thousands.

There were 54,385 applications for some 5,000 state and local job openings in the first 11 months of 2005. That number is low because the state did not hold exams for law enforcement or firefighting positions. Some 40,000 applications would be expected for those exams.

Lawlor said pay, benefits and job security are an enticement, but many want to work in government because they feel they're working to make the world a better place.

"There's a lot of attention paid to the negativity in government work, but there are people who are doing counseling, who are manning suicide hot lines - and people want to be involved in that," Lawlor said. "There are people very happy to be serving their state."

Barbara Davis, owner of Barbara Davis Employment Services in Red Bank, said the private-sector job market has improved in the past few months, but in the recent years of a down economy, government jobs have been the preferred choice.

"It was very difficult for college graduates to get jobs in the private sector, and so they would settle for the public sector," Davis said. "When they see what the perks are, what the pay is, then they decide to stay in the public sector. You have more holidays, less stress, a better retirement plan."