Higher Education

To Control Runaway Costs in Higher Education, Oklahoma Must Pare Down Non-Instructional Workers

September 9, 2016

J. Scott Moody, Wendy Warcholik, Ph.D.

The U.S. Census Bureau keeps track of all types of data on Oklahoma’s higher education system. The chart below uses Census data to examine the dramatic size and growth in the number of non-instructional workers (per 100 private-sector workers) in Oklahoma’s higher education system.

There are two major points gleaned from this chart. First, Oklahoma’s higher education system employs 2.4 non-instructional workers, which is a whopping 61 percent higher than the national average and the 4th highest level in the country for 2014 (the latest data available). To get back to the national average, Oklahoma’s higher education system would have to shed 12,033 non-instructional workers—to 19,701 workers from the current level of 31,734 workers.

Secondly, and even more troubling, is that the linear growth line shows that the rate of growth in non-instructional workers is higher than the national average, though the dip in the most recent year moderates Oklahoma’s growth rate somewhat. It is an open question as to whether the 2014 dip is transient or is in fact a down payment toward right-sizing the non-instructional workforce.

Overall, this chart strongly suggests that Oklahoma’s policymakers must demand a thorough accounting from higher education officials as to why the state diverges not only in the size of its non-instructional workforce but also why it has historically grown faster than the national average.