Before Ohio’s $8 billion budget shortfall drama this spring and the ensuing furor over government employee benefits and bargaining rights, state and local governments had already been shedding jobs.

To fill the manpower gap, Ohio governments are increasingly relying on part-time workers to fill the gap, a Dayton Daily News analysis of U.S. Census data found.

In the 12-month period ending in March 2010 — the most recent numbers available — Ohio state and local governments had shrunk by the equivalent of more than 12,000 jobs, about a 2 percent reduction, according to data from the Census Bureau’s annual survey of government employment.

Nationwide, the survey shows almost 220,000 jobs disappeared from state and local governments during the period, about a 1.3 percent decrease.

The data show that both the state and local Ohio governments attempted to get the work done by hiring more part-time employees. While local governments shed a little more than 11,000 full-time employees, they added almost 6,000 part-timers, a 4.6 percent increase. The state, meanwhile chopped close to 1,400 full-time workers and added 386 part-timers, a half-percent increase, according to Census data.

Ohio’s government job-shedding put it in the top third of the 50 states, although margins of error from the Census survey data make exact rankings impossible.

“This has been going on for years,” said Stanley Earley, Dayton deputy city manager.

In Dayton, the number of general fund employees, which includes police officers and firefighters, has shrunk from 1,898 people in 2001 to 1,313 people in March 2010, Earley said.

From March 2009 to March 2010 — the period covered by the recent Census survey — general fund employees shrunk from 1,436 to 1,313, he said.

“And we’re continuing to go down,” Earley said.

In Kettering, the number of “full-time equivalent” employees — which takes into account the number of hours worked — is down from 558 in 2008 to 541 in 2011. The number of the city’s full-time employees from down from 392 to 379 in the same period.

“We’re all doing the same thing as far as attrition programs,” said Mark Schwieterman, Kettering city manager. “I would assume everyone’s full-time equivalent (employee) numbers are down.”

When Kettering managers go through an attrition process, they determine whether to fill a vacant job at all, then whether to fill it full-time or part-time. Part-time employees cost less in terms of wages and benefits, Schwieterman acknowledged.

“Obviously, the big picture is, we have to develop a model that’s sustainable,” he said.

In Trotwood, nonfirst responders work an abbreviated 36-hour work week, with pay reduced accordingly, said City Manager Michael Lucking. Non-emergency offices close at noon Friday.

In Trotwood, the number of full-time equivalent positions was 110 in 2008 and is 97 today. The number of part-time employees was 29 in 2008 and is 24 today.

“We’ve gotten leaner and meaner,” Lucking said.

Kerry Korpi, director of research and collective bargaining for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union of 1.6 million active and retired government workers, said the loss of government jobs itself has an economic impact. Most public sector jobs are solid “middle-class” jobs, she said.

“The problem, as Henry Ford used to say, is you need people who can buy cars,” Korpi said.

The average AFSCME member makes $45,000 a year, working toward an average pension of about $19,000 a year, she said.

But one observer says what’s decisive is not the number of employees, but those employees’ salary and benefit packages and the overall cost of government.

“I think what people focus on is government spending, not the number of government employees,” said Matt Mayer, president of the conservative-leaning Buckeye Institute.

Mayer doesn’t believe cities or state government are making strides in spending less or spending wisely. His institute’s data indicates that, taking inflation into account, Ohio government general revenue spending will rise a projected 44 percent from 1990 to 2013.

And he rejects the argument that shrinking the number of government workers has a decisive economic impact. Simply cut salaries and benefits, he advises.

“If you deal with those compensation packages, you don’t have to lay off a single (government) employee,” Maye said.

California led all states by shedding the equivalent almost 60,000 full-time state and local government jobs, a decrease of 3.2 percent, while Rhode Island had the largest percent decrease at 5 percent.

Nine states, led by Texas, actually increased the number of state and local employees from March 2009 to March 2010.

Texas governments added the equivalent of 22,230 full-time employees, a 1.6 percent increase, while Florida added more than 19,000, a 2.1 percent increase. North Dakota had the largest percent increase with a 5.5 percent gain.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.