New York State has 200,000 government employees

I was just reading this post over at WINS 1010 concerning Gov. David Paterson’s (D-N.Y.) problem with the unions after his plans might result in – God forbid – state employee layoffs. I noted the state employs 200,000 workers. Guess how many Ford Motor Company has?

I’m not exactly sure if the 200,000 figure includes local municipalities or exclusively state workers, but the 200,000 figure caught be off-guard since I know many Fortune 50 companies have fewer than 50,000.

I know, the Fortune 50 is generally ranked by revenue, not the number of employees, but it still stood out in my mind. I’m also assuming most of those employees are in unions, since it’s the unions complaining that Paterson is targeting them for ouster.

The largest employer out there seems to be Walmart, with somewhere between 1.8 and 2.1 million employees. Some reports (probably) correctly point out the Chinese Army and the Indian rail system employ more workers than Walmart, but General Electric employs about 300,000 and Ford Motor Company employs about 198,000.

Makes ya go hummmmm.

It seems the state of New York is facing a budget shortfall of $8.5 billion in 2011. Only California ($17.9 billion), Illinois ($13.5 billion) and New Jersey ($10.7 billion), have larger expected deficits next year. (H/T Warner Todd Huston at Gateway Pundit.)

And by the way, bonds are not the answer.