The Press of Atlantic City analyzed the 2008 payrolls of nearly 1,400 municipalities with populations of 20,000 or more, and found the seaside gambling resort ranked 30th nationwide.
The newspaper found that Atlantic City had 43.6 city workers per 1,000 residents in 2008. That's more than Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston or Baltimore. This year, Atlantic City's figure is 42.6 workers per 1,000 residents.
"Atlantic City has long had a city government that worked as a patronage machine," said Bryant Simon, author of "Boardwalk Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America and a history professor at Temple University. "Historically it's just gotten reproduced again and again and again."
Mayor Lorenzo Langford says there is more fat that can be trimmed from the current 1,480-worker payroll. But he blames labor contracts reached before he took office for increasing salary costs.
Atlantic City's population is less than 35,000.
Biloxi, Miss., another city with casinos, has a population of 45,670, but it employs 773 fewer workers than Atlantic City.
Wilmington, N.C., with more than 100,000 residents, has 408 fewer workers than Atlantic City and spent $43 million on salaries - half as much as Atlantic City does.
And Green Bay, Wis., with a population over 101,000, has 526 fewer employees and spends nearly $50 million less on salaries.
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Information from: The Press of Atlantic City
