The number of full-time local government employees located outside of New York City has shrank nearly 8% over the last 15 years, according to a report Thursday from New York state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

The report found the number of workers in local government fell 7.9%, or nearly 39,000, between 2007 and 2022, from 491,102 to 452,298.

In contrast, the nation as a whole saw an increase of 2% of local government employees over the same time period, the comptroller said. 

The most impactful events affecting the local government workforce during this time were the Great Recession and COVID-19 pandemic. While billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief aid to local governments and school districts likely helped employment numbers recover some in 2022, they remain below 2009 levels, the report said.

"We all rely on local government employees for essential services such as education, public safety, health care, and much more,” DiNapoli said. “But local governments were hard hit by two major events, most recently the pandemic, that have taken their toll on staffing levels. Local officials must continue to meet the difficult task of balancing their budgets while making certain they have the staff in place to ensure critical services are there for their residents.”

The report also found that:

• More local employees worked upstate (55%) as opposed to downstate in 2022
• School districts were the largest local government employer in 2022, followed by county workers, city and village workers and town workers
• The average annual salary for full-time local government employees was approximately $76,700 in 2022, up from about $53,900 in 2007, but inflation means the annual salary was nearly flat over that time
• Workers employed in police protection were the highest paid local government employees in 2022, followed by fire protection employees
• Public welfare employees had the lowest average annual salary