Education spurs
government
growth

Hawaii's increase is above
the national average,
a report says

The size and cost of Hawaii's state government rose faster than the national average, but much of the increase went to adding teachers and other education employees in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The state added 853 more teaching and 573 other full-time positions in the public school system, a 5 percent increase between March 2002 and March 2003, according to an annual Census report released yesterday.

Including state libraries and universities, there were about 36,730 full-time positions in public education in Hawaii, more than half of the 71,764 full-time equivalent jobs in Hawaii government.

The number of state and local government jobs rose about 1.8 percent, compared with 0.3 percent nationwide. Monthly payroll costs for the state and counties went up about $16 million, or about 7 percent, to $238,674,782 in March 2003.

Nationally, there were about 15.8 million full-time jobs in state and local governments. Payroll costs in the United States, on average, increased 3.6 percent to about $54.5 billion.

The number of county government employees in Hawaii's four counties was down slightly to 14,306 in 2003 from 14,492 in 2002. Almost all job categories, including the number of police officers and firefighters, fell slightly. Despite the decrease in positions, county payroll was up about $2.4 million a month to nearly $52 million monthly.

The number of people in the bureaucracy in Hawaii declined. There were about 3,189 administrative and financial jobs, 2.3 percent fewer than 2002.

Each year, the census collects what amounts to a snapshot of government employ- ment in March. The bureau does not calculate the actual number of state and local employees, but looks at what are considered "full-time equivalent" positions -- the number of full-time employees plus total hours worked by part-time employees, divided by the standard work week.

The number of civilian federal employees in Hawaii was not available for 2003. Nationwide, though, the federal government added about 27,000 full-time jobs. The monthly federal payroll increased about 9 percent to roughly $12.7 billion.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that about 5.8 percent of Hawaii's population works in state or county government. The number of full-time equivalent jobs is roughly 10 percent of the 791,120 working adults (ages 18 to 60) counted by the census in 2000.