Oklahoma's State Employee Payroll Increased In 2005

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma added 1,021 new full- and part-time workers to its state government payroll last year, according to U.S. Census data.<br/><br/>The state payroll increased by about 5 percent

Friday, May 5th 2006, 11:12 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma added 1,021 new full- and part-time workers to its state government payroll last year, according to U.S. Census data.

The state payroll increased by about 5 percent to $203.5 million in March 2005 from $193.7 million a year earlier, according to the data released Wednesday. The number of full- and part-time state workers increased from 80,314 to 81,335.

Hank Beatty, deputy administrator in the state Office of Personnel Management, said the increase probably is a reflection of recovery from widespread cutbacks during a revenue shortfall in 2003.

"Most agencies are still trying to get back to the level of services and employees they had before 2003," Beatty said.

Higher education instruction had the biggest growth with 651 new workers. However, there were 242 fewer full-time college instructors and 893 more part-time instructors in March 2005 than the previous year.

Parks and recreation had the biggest loss in jobs, with 305, or about 30 percent of its work force.