How many state employees are there?

I wrote a story earlier today about a question posed during Iowa Press on IPTV to House Appropriations Committee chair Jo Oldson & Senate Approriations Committee chair Bob Dvorsky.  "How many state employees are there?" I asked.

"Several thousand," Oldson said.  Dvorsky guessed 140,000 to 150,000.  According to a document found this morning in the Legislative Services Agency fact book, the number is closer to 48,000.  A cross-check with the Iowa Department of Administrative Services confirmed that number.

This afternoon, the Department of Administrative Services sent an update.  There are 24,397 full-time, part-time or tempoary State of Iowa employees.  There are 44,186 employees working for the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa (the three, state-supported universities) and the state’s "special schools" for blind and deaf students, but only 16,372 of those employees are paid out of the state’s general fund.  So, add 16,372 and 24,397 and you get 40,769.

Moments later, this came to me unsolicited, via email, from House Republican Leader Christopher Rants’ office:  "Iowa has 41,582 full-time employees and 24,131 part-time employees.  This extrapolates to 53,258 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions.  That puts Iowa 8th overall in comparison to the other states."