Local governments laid off employees for seven consecutive months

Local governments laid off employees for seven consecutive months In a healthy economic recovery, states and localities will hire, expand services, and help spur the nation's growth, but 2…

Local governments have laid off employees for seven consecutive months. In a healthy economic recovery, states and localities will begin to hire employees, expand services, and help promote the country's growth. However, the recovery in 2011 is not the case. The U.S. economy has moved forward, but state and local governments are still stuck in recession. May implemented layoffs for the seventh consecutive month, eliminating a total of 30,000 jobs. Instead of promoting, it actually slowed down the country's economic growth. Ordinary people can feel it best, because there have been fewer teachers, police officers, and firefighters. The "Great Recession" officially ended two years ago in June 2009. In previous recoveries, state and local governments have been the locomotive of growth two years after the recovery. For example, two years after the end of the 1990-91 recession, state and local governments added 430,000 jobs; after the end of the 2001 recession, state and local governments added 249,000 jobs; but this time is different. After June 2009, state and local governments added 430,000 jobs. The Chinese government has cut 467,000 jobs, including 188,000 teachers. Experts don't think the pain will go away soon. Wells Fargo Securities senior economist Weitner predicts that state and local governments will cut 20,000 to 30,000 jobs per month until mid-2012. Moody’s Analytics estimates that each state and local government job would support an additional 1.3 jobs nationwide. The Great Recession of 2007-2009, the longest and most severe economic downturn since the 1930s, dried up tax revenue for state and local governments; increased demand for social welfare programs such as Medicaid and unemployment benefits; and eroded state reserves. The federal government's stimulus spending once provided a small boost to state and local finances, but the money has been used up and further appropriations are unlikely. Analysts also point to a possible resurgence in state government, with a report last week from the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officials predicting a 2.1% increase in state tax revenues for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. However, 29 states said they would still spend less in 2012 than in 2008. Local governments are still waiting for tax revenue lost due to falling housing prices to recover. Experts say the decline in local government revenue may not have bottomed out yet, and it may still take a year for the recovery to pick up.