November 1, 1972 to the Editor epublic 19th Street, N. W. ngton, D. C. Editor: There are two errors contained in our recent article "Public Jobs/ Needs", (NR November 4, 1972). We would like to take this unity to correct them. The number of full time year round workers whose wages fell $7,000 in 1970 was indeed 10.9 million but this is 30 percent of the ne year round labor force not the total labor force. The forecast that a 10 billion public employment program a la on would (with a multiplier of 2) "cut unemployment nearly in s also incorrect. Two million extra jobs would surely have a impact on the unemployment rate, but the precise effect is hard cast since--as new jobs are generated by a growing economy-people enter the labor force in search of work. If public employs implemented without complimentary expansionist fiscal and ry policies (or if accompanied by "compensatory budget cutbacks" etting taxes) then its net effect on overall unemployment could be ly nil. That is why we stipulate "deficit spending" as a means icing the Cranston program. Sincerely yours, Bennett Harrison William Spring Goo Government NOW IN IT 88TH YEAR OF CONTINUOUS PUBLICATION SURVEY OF CURRENT PERSONNEL SYSTEMS In State SPRING 1971 OFFICERS Chairman, Executive Committee Treasurer HONORARY VICE PRESIDENTS MURRAY SEASONGOOD CHARLES P. TAFT Taft, Luken & Boyd Executive Director Deputy Director Associate Directors ADA R. KIMSEY PERRY A. SMITH III RICHARD A. STAUFENBERGER BOARD OF DIRECTORS MARVER H. BERNSTEIN, Princeton University WILLIAM T. COLEMAN, JR., Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish, Levy & Coleman EDWARD GUDEMAN, Limited Partner, Lehman Brothers LEWELLYN A. JENNINGS, Chairman of the Board, Riggs National Bank of Washington, D. C. DAVID J. MAHONEY, President & Chief Executive Officer, Norton Simon, Inc. GEORGE C. McGHEE, Businessman and Former Diplomat NEWTON N. MINOW, Liebman, Williams, Bennett, Baird & Minow SAMUEL H. ORDWAY, JR., Foundation Trustee WINSTON PAUL, Trustee JOHN A. PERKINS, Northwestern University ESTHER PETERSON, Consumer Advisor, Giant Food, Inc. WILLIAM RUDER, Ruder & Finn, Inc. WALLACE S. SAYRE, Professor of Public Law & Government, Columbia University KATHRYN H. STONE, Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies JAMES E. WEBB, Attorney WATSON W. WISE, Petroleum & Investments 5-736 72 pt. 560 For New Answers to Old Questions: League Collects and Analyzes Data in Unique Poli SURVEY of CURRENT PERSONNEL SYSTEMS JACOB J. RUTSTEIN Project Director National Civil Service League INTRODUCTION Early in 1970, the National Civil Service League conducted a comprehensive "state of the art" survey of the personnel systems of state and local governments across the country.1 The League sent detailed questionnaires designed to obtain factual information on the personnel system organization, policies, and programs to 568 state, county and municipal governments employing over 500 employees, exclusive of educational and institutional staff. In addition, a number of questions focused on the involvement in special policies or programs affecting the recruitment, employment, retention, and development of the disadvantaged in the local public sector. More than 62% of the state and local government units completed and returned the questionnaire. This response provided a sample of 357 state and local personnel jurisdictions which met the criteria of 500 employees. Collectively, the returns from these units represented coverage of over two and one half million public employees, or about 55% of all state and local public workers, outside of educational organizations, in the United States, as of February, 1970. This sample is distributed as follows: E OF PERSONNEL ORGANIZATION state and local jurisdictions favor the civil commission type of organization for their perystems nder a civil service commission-224 ximately 9 of 10 public personnel systems func- • Full-time personnel officers help operate the personnel systems in over 80% of the public service jurisdictions -Full-time personnel officer-297 [state 40; county-83; city-174] • Twenty-four of the public service jurisdictions reporting gave no indication of the nature of their personnel organization. This included one state, 13 counties, and 10 cities. |