Education+positions+represent+most+job+losses+in+local+government

= = = U.S. Teacher Job Cuts Push Local Payrolls to Lowest Since 2005 = =By William Selway= =Published by Bloomberg News= =10/7/11= = = = = = = =Fri Oct 07 14:41:15 GMT 2011= =The number of workers employed by local governments in the U.S. fell to the lowest since November 2005 as teachers and other public employees lost their jobs.= =Local government payrolls, adjusted for seasonal swings, dropped 35,000 in September to 14 million, the Labor Department reported today. The loss was driven by education payrolls, which slipped 24,400 to a more than six-year low of 7.8 million.= =The declines are in contrast to the overall [|U.S. economy], where payrolls rose by 103,000, easing concern about a resurgent recession. Cities, counties and school districts have been squeezed by diminished tax collections brought on by tumbling [|home prices], as well as cutbacks in aid from state governments coping with their own budget shortfalls.= =Property-tax collections have slipped during the past three quarters, according to the Census Bureau. Most municipal officials said their finances were worse off this year than last, a report last month by the National League of Cities found.= =“This confirms for us in real hard numbers the impact of the budget reductions at the local level, both last year and this year,” Chris Mauro, a municipal-debt strategist at [|RBC Capital Markets] in [|New York], said in a telephone interview.=

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