Federal Jobs Bolster Maryland’s Economy, Education System

On any given workday, the troves of cars sitting bumper to bumper, inching forward on I-95 or I-495 heading from the suburbs of Maryland into the nation's capital, tell the story of the state's economy.

Maryland's heart may rest in Baltimore's scenic inner harbor, or the historic streets of downtown Annapolis, but the bulk of its work is in – or related to – nearby Washington.

With more than 5 percent of Maryland workers employed by the federal government in 2015, the government really is the "bedrock of the [state's] economy," says Donald Kettl, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.

The state is home to the fourth largest percentage of civilian federal workers in the U.S. and also houses more than 60 federal agencies, from the National Security Agency to the National Institutes of Health.

All of these nearby government facilities attract highly educated people and create white-collar jobs, which Kettl says are not quite recession-proof but provide a sustainable economic base. Farther from the nation's capital, the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay has a strong foundation in agriculture, and Ocean City's tourism industry is thriving.

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