Tight budget pinches state pay.

• Position: Triangle

Recession's gloom might be lifting for some private-sector workers, but the downturn's doldrums likely will linger at least another year for state employees. In March, Gov. Beverly Perdue told a reporter there's no money for raises in the fiscal year that will begin in July. The nearly 200,000 government employees didn't get one this year, either. In fact, they effectively took a 1/2% pay cut due to unpaid furloughs they were forced to take.

In a typical year, state employees can expect at least a 2% increase, closely tied to the federal consumer price index, says Dana Cope, executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina. That translates to about $1 billion in economic impact. With the CPI rising 2.6% in 2009, state workers lost purchasing power. "That means there's less goods and services in demand by these employees," Cope says.

Nowhere will the impact be felt more keenly than in the Triangle, which accounts for nearly 40% of all state-government workers. They make up 8.8% of the workforce in the Raleigh-Cary metro area and 11.8% in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro. By comparison, 8.5% of workforce in the Charlotte metro is engaged in financial jobs.

The General Assembly often tacks on money for employee pay as the budget moves through the legislative process. State workers got a 4% raise in fiscal 2007-08 after Gov. Mike Easley proposed 2.5%. In 2008-09, lawmakers bumped the increase from 1.5% to 2.75%. They didn't...