Plastered all over the news today are stories about 10,000 layoffs in the State workforce. That might be signficant, but can it be understood on it own? No.
We need to ask: how many employees, new, were hired by the State since 2004. I have heard the number 50,000 thrown around as the answer, but I don’t know. But if it is, then we are still 40,000 higher than we were, and it unlikely that anyone can put up a rationale defense that we needed the extra (insert number) of employees.