Federal Employees Per Capita and Obama Vs. McCain
A Few Surprises!
They aren't number 1 in terms of federal jobs. That honor belongs to Maryland, where 4.8% of the population has a federal job. Number 2 in terms of federal jobs is Virginia, with 3.7% having a federal job. That those two states are 1,2 isn't too surprising when you consider that they are right next to the nation's capital, and contain suburbs of that capital. But Alaska is number 3. In Alaska, 3.3% of the population has a federal job.
The rest of the top 10 in terms of federal jobs per capita are Hawaii, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Oklahoma.
And which states have the *fewest* federal jobs per capita? Well, the absolute fewest is Michigan, where 0.6% have federal jobs. Next lowest is Wisconsin, at 0.7%. And the rest of the top ten are Connecticut, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Nevada, and Massachusetts.
Now, let's take a look at how these states voted in the recent election for president of the United States.
Of the 10 states with the most federal jobs per capita, seven voted for McCain-Palin.The exceptions are Hawaii, Virginia and Maryland. And, in fact, the states that gave McCain Palin the highest percentages several are among those with the most federal jobs. In particular, Alaska, Oklahoma and Utah all gave Obama less than 40% of the vote, as did Alabama, which would be 11th on that list. Only one other state (Wyoming) gave Obama less than 40%.
Of the 10 states with the fewest federal jobs per capita, all 10 voted for Obama-Biden.
And, if you exclude Virginia and Maryland as outliers, the correlation between federal employees per capita and Obama's percentage of the vote is -0.16
Sources
Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/popest/states/NST-ann-est.html
National Treasury Employees Union http://www.theyworkforus.org/documents/FedEmployeesStats.pdf
Dave Leips Election Atlas http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/
Published by Peter Flom
I am a statistician, working with a wide variety of clients, mostly researchers in psychology, education, medicine, social sciences and other fields. I also have given talks and written articles on learning... View profile
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10 Comments
Post a CommentThe percent listed is a great idea, keep in mind many republicans and states they represent not only have lobbied for the funding but seem to "forget about it"
Perhaps you can list the number of jobs per capita by state , while I am glad you brought up the topic it would be very much helpful, to list the per capita from 1-50, or at least say who was in the top and bottom 10, while short statements are great, it leaves people scratching their head, leaving people to have to figure out things for themselves.
Their may be a few political reasons for this.
Seems contradictory, doesn't it?
Interesting info. Thanks for keeping us informed. :-)
Good work.
Interesting article, however you neglected to mention about Arizona which was a state McCain carried as a lock. There really isn't any coincidence or correlation to federal jobs and states versus how they voted. If that were the case, then Alaska should have been carried by Obama of you are eluding to the possibility of liberal v. conservative voting patterns. I believe what really came up was the desire to shock the system and do something different. If you really wanted to look into something, think on the fact that Pres. Obama presents 21st century concepts, but Sen. McCain presented 20th century concepts. The system as it were, was downed since the late 50's. Declining in wake of the emerging desires of changes in civil liberties for minorities and women. This is what I fail to understand about those resistant to changes, for if it were not for the need to change, too many women would still be marginalized and a vast number of ethnic minorities would never be allowed to participate
Interesting concepts.
A lot of stats, but it figures...
Thanks for the info. Interesting how the voting versus # of federal jobs correlated.
very interesting facts!