Bad news for people who like to complain about "too much government" in Oregon. A new Wall Street Journal report that ranks all 50 states says Oregon's numbers are right about where they should be.
While Oregon's ranking of 16 percent of the workforce employed in the public sector (not counting federal employment) is slightly higher than the national average of 14.2 percent, the report notes there's good reason for that.
"A more rural, spread-out population usually corresponds with a higher proportion of workers employed by the state, counties and local municipalities," says the WSJ. "It is therefore not surprising that Oregon's population is far less densely populated than the national average."
In fact, Oregon's population density of 39.9 people per square mile is less than half of the national average of 87.4. Given those statistics, one could make the argument that Oregon's state and local government employee numbers should logically be much higher than just 1.8 percent above the national average.
With only 1.7 percent of Oregon's workers being federal employees — one of the lowest rates in the nation — the state's overall "government influence" in employment statistics is relatively low.
Rhode Island, at 11 percent, is the state with the least average state and local government employees. Rhode Island is also the smallest state, period, and is relatively highly urbanized. The state with the highest ranking of non-federal government employees? Wyoming, at 22.4 percent.
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