And state employees benefit when government is organized on sound and sustainable fiscal principles and imposes as little cost as possible in the form of taxes which they pay along with everyone else. The problem comes in choosing the appropriate indicators. However, according to the State Personnel Office, only 1,182 of the positions are being advertised that is, the state is trying to fill them. This is an improvement. A year ago, the number of advertised vacancies was about 1,800.
Every state department retains a number of excess positions on the books.
Even though recruiting for certain occupations or regions may well be difficult, there are generally numerous applicants for jobs that agencies want to fill. But this fact doesn't answer the right question. It doesn't factor into the equat ion the starting point of public and private salaries, changes in skills needed, and the value of job security. A better approach is to use a national standard to compare the relative compensation of public and private employees. In 1998 the 3 million-plus workers in North Carolina's private sector earned 88 percent of the U.S. average for private sector workers.