"One of the most important goals of Gov. Chris Christie’s time in office has been balancing New Jersey’s budget by any means necessary. But in taking such sometimes extreme austerity measures, Christie has had an interesting affect on the N.J. state government staff levels — the number of personnel across all the departments of the state government has been dwindling rapidly. At the end of 2010, there were 76,956 employees in the state government, which is 3,000 fewer employees than were working when Christie began his term in January of the same year. Three departments in particular have it especially bad right now: the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Department of Education (DOE) and the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). Champions of Christie point to the falling number of state employees as a sign of a smaller, smarter government. These people would do well to remember that, especially in departments as crucial as the aforementioned three, smaller does not always equal better."

http://www.dailytargum.com/opinion/editorials/government-needs-employees-to-operate/article_cd508404-f2e8-11e0-9dd1-0019bb30f31a.html