The latest bad news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was released on Nov. 4. No surprise to those in state agencies, however the Great Recession continues to impact state employment rolls. Government employment continued to trend down over the month (-24,000), with most of the October decline in the non-educational component of state government - almost 20,000 jobs. Employment in both state government and local government has been trending down since the second half of 2008.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm