Perspective: Domestic

In 2019, state government revenues decreased 1.7 percent from the 2018 estimate of $2.71 trillion to $2.66 trillion. The major shares of revenue for state governments were taxes (40.6 percent), intergovernmental (26.6 percent), and insurance trust revenue (16.4 percent).

Discretionary spending by the federal government totaled $1.6 trillion in 2020, of which $714 billion was for national defense and $914 billion was for nondefense activities.

Revenues received by the federal government in 2020 totaled $3.4 trillion, of which $1.6 trillion was receipts from individual income taxes.

The federal deficit in 2020 was $3.1 trillion, equal to 14.9 percent of gross domestic product.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the fourth quarter of 2020, as real GDP for the nation increased at an annual rate of 4.3 percent, according to statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The percent change in real GDP in the fourth quarter ranged from 9.9 percent in South Dakota to 1.2 percent in the District of Columbia (table 1).

CBO presents its projections of what federal deficits, debt, spending, and revenues would be for the next 30 years if current laws governing taxes and spending generally did not change.

Mandatory spending by the federal government totaled $4.6 trillion in 2020, of which $1.9 trillion was for Social Security and Medicare.

Twenty-one states began 2020 with higher minimum wages. Seven states (Alaska, Florida, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, South Dakota, and Vermont) automatically increased their rates based on the cost of living, while 14 states (Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Washington) increased their rates due to previously approved legislation or ballot initiatives. Florida voters approved Amendment 2, raising the state minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by 2026.

2020 will likely be remembered as the year the workplace changed forever. From in-office safety measures to work-from-home conference calls, leaders have been forced to reimagine every aspect of their management culture.

What's essential to performance? How does personal life shape professional life? What do our core values really mean when the marketplace throws a curveball?

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics provides information on the employment situation. Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. Employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors, with particularly heavy job losses in leisure and hospitality. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys.

How have U.S. workers handled disruptions from the coronavirus outbreak? And how have key measures like employee engagement and wellbeing fared? Jim Harter, Gallup's Chief Scientist on Workplace and Wellbeing, joins the podcast to break down Gallup's latest findings.

Claudia Goldin, former head of the American Economic Association, called the period beginning in the mid-1970s the quiet revolution in women's labor. The ranks of female workers had grown steadily after World War II, but what changed drastically starting in the '70s, according to Goldin, wasn't the raw numbers, but mindset. Women made employment decisions for themselves, they pursued careers, and their work became part of their identity. The COVID-19 pandemic, by any measure, has been a blow to that identity.

In 2016, Millennials became the largest generation in the U.S. labor force. More than one in three participants in the workforce are Millennials, born between 1980 and 1995. As of 2017, 56 million Millennials in the U.S. were working or seeking employment, surpassing Generation X and Baby Boomers. Millennials are employed in both the public and private sectors. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 22.5 million U.S. workers are government employees.

The Center for State and Local Government Excellence (SLGE), in partnership with the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) and the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE), has been surveying human resources directors in state and local governments since 2009. This year’s survey continues many of the questions from that original survey, with additional detail around emerging issues such as flexible workplace policies, positions that are difficult to fill, and the reasons for separation as discussed in exit interviews.

Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states. At the conclusion of each decennial census, the results are used to calculate the number of seats to which each state is entitled. Each of the 50 states is entitled to a minimum of one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The year 2030 marks a demographic turning point for the United States. Beginning that year, all baby boomers will be older than 65 years of age. This will expand the size of the older population so that one in every five Americans is projected to be of retirement age. Later that decade, by 2034, we project that older adults will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history. The year 2030 marks another demographic first for the United States.

Higher education programs that teach in prisons take on a near impossible task: to provide their students with a high-quality education, equal to anything beyond the prison walls, while working under strict constraints. Incarcerated students rarely have access to learning resources typically taken for granted on the outside—computers, books, and internet access are all heavily restricted by various state Departments of Corrections (DOC)—and instructors must work with and around DOC security protocols while planning and teaching their classes.

The state and local governmental public health workforce plays a critical role in protecting and improving the lives of the individuals it serves. As is the case with state and local employment generally, the workforce in public health is changing. Recruitment and retention of the next wave of employees presents challenges, particularly at a time of continued retirements, low unemployment, and competition from the private sector for talented graduates and other career entrants. To better understand the U.S.

Today the U.S. Census Bureau is releasing results from the 2020 Census, marking the 24th time the nation’s population has been counted since the first census in 1790, when there were just 3.9 million people living in the United States.

The first census helped build the foundation of our democracy, and the census continues to be a cornerstone for our growing nation.

According to the 2020 Census, there were 331,449,281 people living in the United States as of April 1, 2020, which represents a growth of 7.4% since 2010. In the last 100 years, our nation has tripled in size.

A large share of experts and analysts worry that people’s technology use will mostly weaken core aspects of democracy and democratic representation in the coming decade. Yet they also foresee significant social and civic innovation between now and 2030 to try to address emerging issues.

In this new report, technology experts who shared serious concerns for democracy in a recent Pew Research Center canvassing weigh in with their views about the likely changes and reforms that might occur in the coming years.

Employers in the United States are increasingly in pursuit of workers who are adept in social skills, like negotiation and persuasion, and have a strong grounding in fundamental skills, such as critical thinking and writing. In the past nearly four decades, employment in the U.S. has expanded most rapidly in jobs in which these skill sets are most valued. Jobs attaching greater importance to analytical skills, such as science, mathematics and programming, are also hiring workers at a brisk pace.

The years of almost unfettered enthusiasm about the benefits of the internet have been followed by a period of techlash as users worry about the actors who exploit the speed, reach and complexity of the internet for harmful purposes. Over the past four years – a time of the Brexit decision in the United Kingdom, the American presidential election and a variety of other elections – the digital disruption of democracy has been a leading concern.

In this report, the Guttmacher Institute examines new data collected from cisgender women in the United States on how they feel that the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced their sexual reproductive health. It also examines women’s reports of pandemic-related economic challenges and how these challenges intersect with their sexual and reproductive experiences. Across these analyses,particular attention is given to longstanding social and economic inequities experienced by women based on their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or income level.

About 600,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the coronavirus outbreak began. But behind that huge figure is a more nuanced one that brings the human toll of the virus into even sharper relief.

Check out previous Environmental Scans

The National Institute of Corrections publishes this compilation of resources each year as an overview of what research indicates to be the trends in the corrections industry each year.
Accession Number: (2018) 033176, (2019) 033431, (2020) 033563, (2021) 033670, (2022) 033086, (2023) 033087

Corrections Environmental Scan

Perspective: Domestic

Annual Survey of State Government Finances Summary: 2019

Discretionary Spending in Fiscal Year 2020: An Infographic

Revenues in Fiscal Year 2020: An Infographic

The Federal Budget in Fiscal Year 2020: An Infographic

Gross Domestic Product by State, 4th Quarter 2020 and Annual 2020 (Preliminary)

The 2020 Long-Term Budget Outlook

Mandatory Spending in Fiscal Year 2020: An Infographic

State Minimum Wages 2020 Highlights

7 Gallup Workplace Insights: What We Learned in 2020

The Employment Situation - April 2020

Clocking in Amid Coronavirus: How the Workforce Has Changed

Women Are Leaving the Labor Force in Record Numbers

Millennial State & Local Government Employee Views on Their Jobs, Compensation & Retirement

State and Local Government Workforce: 2020 Survey

2020 Census Apportionment Results

Demographic Turning Points for the United States: Population Projections for 2020 to 2060

Advancing Technological Equity for Incarcerated College Students

How Does the Public Health Workforce Compare with the Broader Public Sector?

The 2020 Census: Our Growing Nation

Experts Predict More Digital Innovation by 2030 Aimed at Enhancing Democracy

Women Make Gains in the Workplace Amid a Rising Demand for Skilled Workers

Many Tech Experts Say Digital Disruption Will Hurt Democracy

Early Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from the 2020 Guttmacher Survey of Reproductive Health Experiences

Americans Lost More Years of Life to COVID-19 in 2020 Than to All Accidents Combined in a Typical Year

Other NIC Microsites

National Institute of Corrections