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Home > Coronavirus > CHART OF THE DAY: Vanishing public-sector education jobs

CHART OF THE DAY: Vanishing public-sector education jobs

Oct. 7, 2020 by Joseph Brusuelas

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One likely consequence of the failure by the political sector to agree on an additional round of fiscal aid will be further job losses. In our estimation, the hole blown in state and local balance sheets demands a $500 billion aid package to avoid laying off public sector workers including teachers, fire personnel and peace officers.

Over the past six months, state and local government employment averaged 720,000 fewer education positions and 390,000 fewer non-education positions than last year. That’s 1.1 million total government job losses.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported additional job losses by state and local government employees. Jobs in local government education and state government education fell by 231,000 and 49,000, respectively, from August through September, according to the BLS Establishment Survey.

This is at a time when school employees would be expected to increase as bus drivers, lunchroom staff, nurses and teachers return to their normal activities.

And what can we expect if financial positions of state and local governments were to continue to deteriorate along with the breakdown of negotiations for increased federal aid? A further decline in state and local tax revenues that fund essential services will have a negative impact on everything from the frequency of garbage collection to the hours at highway rest areas to staffing at the hospitals needed for the next onslaught of the coronavirus.

For more information on how the coronavirus is affecting midsize businesses, please visit the RSM Coronavirus Resource Center.

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Filed Under: Coronavirus, Economics Tagged With: coronavirus, Covid-19, job losses, Joseph Brusuelas

About Joseph Brusuelas

@JoeBrusuelas

Joe Brusuelas, “chief economist to the middle market,” is the preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing midsize companies in the United States and around the world. An award-winning economist, Brusuelas has more than 20 years’ experience analyzing U.S. monetary policy, labor markets, fiscal policy, international finance, economic indicators and the condition of the U.S. consumer.

A member of the Wall Street Journal’s forecasting panel, Brusuelas regularly briefs members of Congress and other senior officials regarding the impacts of federal policy on the middle market and the factors by which middle market executives make business decisions. He also frequently offers his insights on the U.S., Canadian and global economies in the financial media. In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential economists by Richtopia.

Before joining RSM in 2014, Brusuelas spent four years as a senior economist at Bloomberg L.P. and the Bloomberg Briefs newsletter group, where he co-founded the award-winning Bloomberg Economic Brief. Earlier in his career, he was a director at Moody's Analytics covering the U.S. and global economies for the Dismal Scientist website. He also served as chief economist at Merk Investments L.L.C. and chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal.

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