Legislative Staff Data and Services
State legislatures employ over 35,000 staff who provide professional services to state legislators and to the legislative institution. Over the past few decades, staff numbers have increased significantly in most states, but the growth trend has flattened out in recent years. See data about the number of staff in each legislature for the years 1979, 1988, 1996 and 2003 to measure how your state legislature's overall staff numbers have changed during this period.
Staff organization also looks different from state to state. Generally, most state legislatures started out with small, central, nonpartisan staff groups but over the years many legislatures have created specialized staff groups, decentralized their staff organization and added partisan staff to their operations. You can read profiles of each state's legislative staff organization to see how your state compares to others and to get ideas about alternate staffing arrangements. For more detail on staff organization and management issues, contact Brian Weberg (mailto:legislatures-info@ncsl.org?subject=[staff org]) at NCSL.
As staff organizations have grown and matured, legislative employees have sought out more opportunities for professional development and training unique to their work. In addition, the role of staff managers and the importance of management skill in the legislative workplace has gained increased importance.
NCSL's staff sections and networks offer legislative employees specialized forums for discussion of professional issues and for development and delivery of customized training. Contact Bruce Feustel (mailto:legislatures-info@ncsl.org?subject=[training]) to discuss staff training opportunities at NCSL.
Legislative staff has also been instrumental in creating Innovative Legislative Management Practices. The report focuses on changes in information technology and management and worker services. |
