Without Layoffs, the Plan Would Eliminate 5,000 Positions and Save Taxpayers $1.5 Billion Over Five Years
BOSTON – The size of the state workforce reached an all-time high in 2025, and a new Pioneer Institute study recommends implementing an attrition program that would reduce the number of positions under the governor’s authority by 5,000 and save taxpayers $1.5 billion over five years by backfilling three of every four positions that are vacated.
The number of positions under the governor’s authority jumped by 10.6 percent over just the last three years to 46,408 in FY2025. Total public sector employment in Massachusetts has grown by 14,900 positions since 2019.
“Massachusetts is one of a small handful of states that still has fewer private sector jobs than it did prior to the pandemic,” said Pioneer Institute Senior Fellow Gary Blank, the author of “Massachusetts’ State Government Workforce.” “The current state workforce is both larger than we need and larger than we can afford.”
All in, state government personnel costs were $23.5 billion last year, or about 24 percent of total spending.
Blank writes that about 4,000 state positions are vacated each year and 3,000 should be backfilled. Within that larger framework, the governor could determine that some agencies should increase the size of their workforce, while others would backfill fewer than 75 percent of vacated positions.
Some positions, such as direct care and public safety, could be excluded from the attrition plan if the overall reductions are achieved.
The plan is not a blunt instrument and should be paired with agency talent strategies that would be based on realistic full-time equivalent (FTE) levels and having a better understanding of what those levels will be over time. Multi-year hiring policies could then be implemented based on the agency talent strategy. This will allow some agencies to grow while others shrink.
Blank also finds that AI need not lead to state layoffs. He says it can be helpful in terms of knowledge transfer, citing an application in New Jersey named after a retired state employee who was highly respected for her institutional knowledge. When they were unsure about a rule or policy, they found that the app could answer questions that might otherwise require hours of sifting through rules.
He also notes that the impact of AI will differ depending on the position. Jobs that are physical in nature are unlikely to be affected, but a Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles chatbot launched last year is successfully helping customers with their issues.
“An expanding government workforce alongside a shrinking private sector is a warning sign for Massachusetts’ competitiveness,” said Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios. “It suggests the economy isn’t growing enough to support our rising expenditures — and that’s something we have to change.”
Governor Healey imposed a hiring freeze in May 2025 that contributed to a reduction of 743 FTEs over the subsequent three quarters. Blank notes this demonstrates that attrition can work — but argues the approach should be deliberate and sustained rather than an emergency budget measure.
About the Author
Gary Blank is Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow for Government Effectiveness. His career spans Massachusetts state government, management consulting, Fidelity Investments, the White House, and the U.S. Congress.
