skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Multiplier Effect Calculates Economics of State Layoffs

play audio
Play

Tuesday, January 25, 2011   

AUSTIN, Texas - State budget plans call for eliminating up to 10,000 state jobs and 100,000 positions in public schools. But a budget analyst warns that cutting public-sector jobs results in the loss of private-sector jobs, too.

Economists call it the "multiplier effect."

Eva Deluna Castro, senior budget analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, explains the economic ramifications when public employees get pink slips.

"There is a multiplier effect. When you eliminate a public-sector job, 2.4 jobs are lost."

Deluna Castro estimates that the total of public and private jobs lost under the state House budget proposal would be about 23,000. Add to that the school district positions being defunded and she says the final cost to the economy could be 263,000 lost jobs.

The Texas multiplier effect has been well-researched, with Castro pointing out that it is commonly used to argue in favor of business tax incentives - but is rarely examined when jobs are lost. She adds that another consideration in the budget debate and state layoffs has to do with the kinds of positions that would be eliminated.

"The state is a huge contributor to the economy through health care and through schools, both of which are the largest employers - at least, in most communities."

Some of the jobs the budget proposals target are positions that are currently not filled, so the multiplier effect may not be valid for those cases.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021