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1 in every 2.44 persons is a government employee in DC

her209

her209

No Lifer
Take the latest BLS Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary report and pull out the number for government employees for District of Columbia:

246.7 thousand

Take the 2010 Census Population Distribution and Change data for District of Columbia:

601,723

Now do the math:

601,723 / (246.7 * 1000) = approximately 2.44

Ouch!

How the top 10 most populous states stack up:

1 New York 13.07
2 Texas 13.49
3 North Carolina 13.78
4 Georgia 14.72
5 Ohio 14.87
6 Illinois 15.00
7 California 15.60
8 Michigan 16.15
9 Florida 16.97
10 Pennsylvania 17.11

How all states stack up:

1 District of Columbia 2.44
2 Wyoming 7.68
3 North Dakota 8.46
4 Alaska 8.73
5 New Mexico 10.38
6 South Dakota 10.51
7 Nebraska 10.87
8 Hawaii 10.93
9 Kansas 10.99
10 Oklahoma 11.14
11 Montana 11.33
12 Virginia 11.37
13 Maryland 11.61
14 Vermont 11.65
15 Iowa 12.07
16 Mississippi 12.19
17 West Virginia 12.38
18 Washington 12.43
19 Alabama 12.44
20 Louisiana 12.61
21 Utah 12.69
22 Colorado 12.80
23 Minnesota 12.85
24 Oregon 12.87
25 New York 13.07
26 Maine 13.07
27 Kentucky 13.17
28 Idaho 13.21
29 Arkansas 13.36
30 Missouri 13.47
31 Texas 13.49
32 Wisconsin 13.52
33 New Hampshire 13.74
34 North Carolina 13.78
35 South Carolina 13.94
36 New Jersey 14.08
37 Delaware 14.19
38 Connecticut 14.62
39 Georgia 14.72
40 Ohio 14.87
41 Tennessee 14.89
42 Illinois 15.00
43 Massachusetts 15.26
44 Indiana 15.37
45 Arizona 15.49
46 California 15.60
47 Michigan 16.15
48 Florida 16.97
49 Pennsylvania 17.11
50 Rhode Island 17.51
51 Nevada 17.67
 
oh and not everyone lives in the diamond. So I'm sure your ratio is less then this. Have you been to dc? I lived there for 5 years.
 
It's interesting to see that Nevada has so (relatively) few, considering they have an extra couple of things they have to regulate in that state. 😛

DC doesn't surprise me. Lots of people commute in from nova/MD though.
 
JSt0rm said:
oh and not everyone lives in the diamond. So I'm sure your ratio is less then this. Have you been to dc? I lived there for 5 years.
Click to expand...
I actually have been to DC. Walked the National Mall from Capitol Hill to the Washington Monument and took a right to the White House. It got too dark by then and had to catch a plane back to California. For DC, I know its not perfect because there are people living in the surrounding area who commute.
 
DC is a Federal district. It is to be expected that there is a very high ratio of government to non-government.

Then you can shrink that ratio even more when you take into those that have left he government on a pension and are not working inside the district for civilian contractors.
 
I think it's an interesting topic even though many people say it's obvious. It's not just DC. Maryland and Northern Virginia are basically infested with government contractors and government employees. They're doing well too.

Most Americans aren't a fan of big government. The increasing size of the DC metro area should alarm all of us. Even if you're a fan of big government, in this day and age there is no reason why all government workers need to be consolidated in DC. The CDC is in Atlanta. Why not have other organizations around the rest of the country too? The Dept. of Agriculture can have a video meeting with the Dept. of Commerce if it's really necessary for them to meet.
 
Infohawk said:
I think it's an interesting topic even though many people say it's obvious. It's not just DC. Maryland and Northern Virginia are basically infested with government contractors and government employees. They're doing well too.

Most Americans aren't a fan of big government. The increasing size of the DC metro area should alarm all of us. Even if you're a fan of big government, in this day and age there is no reason why all government workers need to be consolidated in DC. The CDC is in Atlanta. Why not have other organizations around the rest of the country too? The Dept. of Agriculture can have a video meeting with the Dept. of Commerce if it's really necessary for them to meet.
Click to expand...

Because to "break apart" the infrastructure in DC would cost us as tax payers billions and billions of dollars? All to just make infohawk feel good about breaking up the government into smaller areas?
 
JSt0rm said:
Because to "break apart" the infrastructure in DC would cost us as tax payers billions and billions of dollars? All to just make infohawk feel good about breaking up the government into smaller areas?
Click to expand...

There would be no "breaking apart of infrastructure." It would have a cost but it would have advantages too, beyond your snotty comment. It's also just a matter of fairness too. Why should the DC area get all the federal jobs? "Derr because it's the national capital" is a stupid reason these days when we have the telecommunications we do.
 
Infohawk said:
There would be no "breaking apart of infrastructure." It would have a cost but it would have advantages too, beyond your snotty comment. It's also just a matter of fairness too. Why should the DC area get all the federal jobs? "Derr because it's the national capital" is a stupid reason these days when we have the telecommunications we do.
Click to expand...

Just admit you havent put any thought into this. The dc area was picked as the capital because nobody wanted it. It is reclaimed swamp land. I think you need to go back to the history books if you want to understand why dc is dc.

I think its beyond even sunday p&n idiocy to suggest we break up the capital of the country.
 
JSt0rm said:
Just admit you havent put any thought into this. The dc area was picked as the capital because nobody wanted it. It is reclaimed swamp land. I think you need to go back to the history books if you want to understand why dc is dc.

I think its beyond even sunday p&n idiocy to suggest we break up the capital of the country.
Click to expand...

You're not interested in an actual discussion so I'm going to stop here. If anyone else wants to take up the issue I'll respond. JStorm, you're just repeating yourself. I gave you new arguments and you ignored them because you're too lazy or too stupid to come up with counter-arguments. (And of course you're jumping to conclusions because I didn't say we should break up the capital, but note that the Europeans did it and it's not really an issue.) And by the way, "because that's the way we've always done it, derrr" is just about the dumbest argument for anything. Good job, sport.
 
Is there a point to this and if so what is it? This reads like "A high proportion of people living in the Vatican are associated with the Roman Catholic Church!"
 
Hayabusa Rider said:
Is there a point to this and if so what is it? This reads like "A high proportion of people living in the Vatican are associated with the Roman Catholic Church!"
Click to expand...

They want to break up washington dc so as to move those good gubment jobs around the country. Thats the new thing in p&n. Keep up.
 
Balt said:
It's interesting to see that Nevada has so (relatively) few, considering they have an extra couple of things they have to regulate in that state. 😛

DC doesn't surprise me. Lots of people commute in from nova/MD though.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think theres more people connected to the federal government here in NOVA.
 
people think a state like california has a big government but per capita its actually pretty tiny. interesting to see this bastion of liberal big government is 46th on the list. Kinda makes people who bitch about cali look like bitches.
 
her209 said:
Take the latest BLS Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary report and pull out the number for government employees for District of Columbia:

246.7 thousand

Take the 2010 Census Population Distribution and Change data for District of Columbia:

601,723

Now do the math:

601,723 / (246.7 * 1000) = approximately 2.44

Ouch!

How the top 10 most populous states stack up:

1 New York 13.07
2 Texas 13.49
3 North Carolina 13.78
4 Georgia 14.72
5 Ohio 14.87
6 Illinois 15.00
7 California 15.60
8 Michigan 16.15
9 Florida 16.97
10 Pennsylvania 17.11

How all states stack up:

1 District of Columbia 2.44
2 Wyoming 7.68
3 North Dakota 8.46
4 Alaska 8.73
5 New Mexico 10.38
6 South Dakota 10.51
7 Nebraska 10.87
8 Hawaii 10.93
9 Kansas 10.99
10 Oklahoma 11.14
11 Montana 11.33
12 Virginia 11.37
13 Maryland 11.61
14 Vermont 11.65
15 Iowa 12.07
16 Mississippi 12.19
17 West Virginia 12.38
18 Washington 12.43
19 Alabama 12.44
20 Louisiana 12.61
21 Utah 12.69
22 Colorado 12.80
23 Minnesota 12.85
24 Oregon 12.87
25 New York 13.07
26 Maine 13.07
27 Kentucky 13.17
28 Idaho 13.21
29 Arkansas 13.36
30 Missouri 13.47
31 Texas 13.49
32 Wisconsin 13.52
33 New Hampshire 13.74
34 North Carolina 13.78
35 South Carolina 13.94
36 New Jersey 14.08
37 Delaware 14.19
38 Connecticut 14.62
39 Georgia 14.72
40 Ohio 14.87
41 Tennessee 14.89
42 Illinois 15.00
43 Massachusetts 15.26
44 Indiana 15.37
45 Arizona 15.49
46 California 15.60
47 Michigan 16.15
48 Florida 16.97
49 Pennsylvania 17.11
50 Rhode Island 17.51
51 Nevada 17.67
Click to expand...

No shit Sherlock. That's where the federal governments headquarters (Capital) is.
 
Infohawk said:
I think it's an interesting topic even though many people say it's obvious. It's not just DC. Maryland and Northern Virginia are basically infested with government contractors and government employees. They're doing well too.

Most Americans aren't a fan of big government. The increasing size of the DC metro area should alarm all of us. Even if you're a fan of big government, in this day and age there is no reason why all government workers need to be consolidated in DC. The CDC is in Atlanta. Why not have other organizations around the rest of the country too? The Dept. of Agriculture can have a video meeting with the Dept. of Commerce if it's really necessary for them to meet.
Click to expand...

My biggest problem with that is that it would probably just create even more entrenched interests. One of the reasons that the defense budget is so hard to cut is that Congress loves to spread the money around to many different states/districts for defense projects. Instead of just fighting against defense contractors over the cancellation of a new project, you're also fighting against members of Congress from X number of districts who were going to get a new plant to make some of the parts.

It's great that it disperses some of the jobs, it's not great that it makes it more difficult to cancel things that should be canceled.
 
Balt said:
One of the reasons that the defense budget is so hard to cut is that Congress loves to spread the money around to many different states/districts for defense projects.
Click to expand...

It's not congress that does this, its the defense contractors who do it.
 
JSt0rm said:
It's not congress that does this, its the defense contractors who do it.
Click to expand...

Actually, the two Tango quite well together. I should know, I work for a defense contractor. We have an office in Crystal City. In my previous post I would have also added, if you count military, defense contractors, contractors who support government IT, and lobbyist, it's probably closer to 1.2 to 1. I grew up in Arlington raised by second generation government workers, and 2 of my brothers are third generation goverment workers. As I said before I also basically work for the government, just not in the D.C area.
 
hal2kilo said:
Actually, the two Tango quite well together. I should know, I work for a defense contractor. We have an office in Crystal City. In my previous post I would have also added, if you count military, defense contractors, contractors who support government IT, and lobbyist, it's probably closer to 1.2 to 1. I grew up in Arlington raised by second generation government workers, and 2 of my brothers are third generation goverment workers. As I said before I also basically work for the government, just not in the D.C area.
Click to expand...

Yup, I know several people that live\work in the DC area (work in Crystal City.) A lot of them are 3rd generation government workers, working for federal agencies, DoD or contractors. A lot of those jobs will continue to pay you your full salary if you get deployed with the Reserves, so you get your Reserve active duty tax free pay, and your regular salary. Even throughout the recession, money has continued to flow freely in the defense industry. :thumbsup:
 
I don't understand the point of the OP. To let us all know that most of the federal workers live near their job in the federal government?
 
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