STX without a PMV

Yeah, that's a good point, Bombi. I'm sure that a lot of income never find its way onto an income tax form or census form. Even so, there's a lot of poverty here.

There is both extremes down here, just about everyone I know at work has a side job, or a full bore side business, or is willing to come by on the weekend and help out on a project for some extra change. The guy that came to fix my security system gave me his card and told me he designs and installs ponds.....yeah ponds. The guy that was hired to help install my fence gave me his number and said his usual work is brush clearing and landscaping. The welder who came to install the gate I built, asked me if I wanted some side work since he liked my design.

On the other side of the coin, go to Cost-U-Less on the first of the month...when the government checks are issued.

Then consider how much of the previously mentioned work is unreported thus allowing 35% of the population to receive food stamps.

Then consider how many people don't have housing costs because they build their home over a number of years on property passed down through the family.

Yup, true, but what you're talking about (side jobs, food stamps, and land passed down through the family) isn't that much different than what you'd see in...let's say...West Virginia.

32.5% is still a HUGE number. No way around it.

What percentage of the workforce is employed by the VI Government??

about 10%

and about 1% WORKS for the government!:@)

I am under the impression that MUCH more than 10% of the workforce is employed by the VI Government.

The last estimate I heard was 10-12K that doesn't include contractors.

A lot of the local workforce also works for the US govt.

10-12,000 employees would be a lot more than 10% of the workforce wouldn't it?

The economy of the Virgin Islands was stable throughout the 1990s, but the tourist industry experienced a period of slow—and in some years, negative—growth. Crime and high costs prompted many tourists to go elsewhere in the Caribbean. As a result, several major airlines cut service to the territory. A reform program that cut the number of government workers from 12,000 to 10,200 employees caused a slight increase in unemployment. These factors will continue to constrain the economy and limit the potential for future growth

Read more: United States of America - Location and size, Population, Manufacturing and construction, Energy and mining, Information technology, Retail, Dependencies, Guam http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/United-States-of-America.html#ixzz0rlrVn2Py

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/United-States-of-America.html

Here is a list of VI Govt employees 520 pages x 20 per page = 10400 this doesn't seem to include the executive branch, contract or some of the judicial branch.

http://www.dopusvi.org/employeedirectory.aspx

The USVI workforce is about 50,000 people, and the 10,000+ employed by the VI government translates to over 20% of the workforce. Further, the 10,000+ figure does not appear to include elected officials, contractors, or quasi-government folks like hospital employees. One of the frustrations here is that we lack government transparency, so accurate information of this sort is impossible to come by.

http://www.cccvi.com/usvi-at-a-glance/

re: % of govt employees.

The Div of Personnel listing DOES include hospital employees, but apparently not teachers, which is kindof strange.

According to the Tax Foundation and based on census data, 19.1% of Americans work for state and local governments. This includes govt employees, police/fire/health/corrections/highway/welfare/education. http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/25174.html

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 2% work for the Federal govt.

Total: 21.1 %

In light of that data, the % down here doesn't seem out of line.
I would suggest it's a performance issue, not a percentage issue.