MA State Workers Had More Job Security In Pandemic: Study

MASSACHUSETTS — Job losses during the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately hit the private sector workforce in Massachusetts, according to a Pioneer Institute report being released Monday.

The report found the state government payroll has been flat throughout the pandemic, while the private sector workforce remains 10 percent below its pre-pandemic level. At the peak of job cuts in April, the state's unemployment rate was 23 percent, even as state government employment rose higher than it had been in February 2020.

"Compared to restaurants, retailers and other businesses, there was very little pressure on state government to cut costs associated with COVID’s economic fallout," said Serena Hajjar, who authored the study for the conservative think tank. "The private sector has felt the bulk of the pain of this contraction."

While some increases in state government workers were related to the pandemic, including increases in the number of workers at the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Public Health, other hiring decisions seem to be unrelated to the crisis. The MBTA, for example, has more employees than it did in February 2020, even as ridership fell to a third of what it was before last March's emergency order.

The increase in the number of MBTA workers came as the University of Massachusetts cut 4 percent of its workforce and the Department of Corrections cut 3 percent from its payroll.

The job losses have been even more dramatic in the private sector. Bars, restaurant and hotels in Massachusetts have not exceeded 70 percent of pre-pandemic employment levels since they were ordered closed for three months last March. Retailers are still keeping hiring in check with a 50 percent capacity limit still in place. The number of small businesses in Massachusetts declined 38 percent during the 12 months ended Jan. 31.

"During the pandemic the private sector took it on the chin while public sector employees, for the most part, were treated as a protected class," Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios said in a statement. "To turn around now and raise taxes to placate public sector unions’ desire to bolster their ranks is willful blindness to reality. State employees represent 3 percent of all employees in the Commonwealth. Coming out of the pandemic, the legislature needs to focus on growing private sector jobs, not taxing them."