So on a personal note (ok all of my posts are littered with personal notes) my mother retired from 30+ years of state service today. And besides the impending constant harassment regarding me making her a grandmother, I thought of what this steady stream of retiring baby boomers from state service means for the future of our state and our economy. For generations now the most reliable employer of the middle class in California has been the state government. But now with the economic downturn (did you hear it’s officially a recession? Oh joy!) the state has not only laid off tens of thousands of workers it has also implemented a hiring freeze. On top of that PERS has projected that approximately 25,000 California government employees are set to retire next year if numbers just hold steady.
What does that mean to the economy? It means that if a hard freeze is implemented some 25,000 middle class jobs will remain vacant indefinitely (except for a very few positions likely to be covered by an exemption). Combine that with the new retirees living on a fixed income and it’s all bad news. It’s not like our state is in the best shape as it is (see this cool little article) but is a hiring freeze and the threat of reduced wages really the best idea? While others are touting government works programs to help the economy rebound our governor thinks the best idea is to close one of the last doors open to the middle class. Good thing he’ll be set to retire soon too .. too bad it may not be soon enough.
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