State of Pennsylvania has 5,000 Vacant Positions

In response to a recent question posed us – about how many actual workers vs. unfilled positions Gov. Rendell would have to eliminate when he talks about cutting state workers – we received (and quickly, I may add) a response to an Open Records request from the Office of Administration.

Their records, as of June 2009, indicate between 5,200 and 5,600 vacant positions.   (I’m not sure I understand the difference between “Actual Salary Totalâ€? and “Number of Positions Authorizedâ€?, but the numbers are pretty close)

Thus, the Governor could theoretically eliminate 5,000 “positions” without laying off an actual state worker (realizing that some vacancies will undoubtedly need to be filled, and positions are assigned to specific departments).