First comes the doom and the gloom in schools, then comes the rehiring.

For years, school officials have warned staff cuts will destroy the state’s public education system. And while it’s true teachers and academic programs have been shed in record numbers over the last four years, the picture may not be quite as bleak as the public has been lead to believe.

The number of school employees has declined, but not at the level that school districts claim at budget votes, the state Department of Labor statistics said. And staffing levels have dropped in Capital Region schools along with the number of students.

In May 2011, the jobs outlook in public education was particularly dire.

The statistics show the average number of local education jobs at public schools between 2005 and 2011 was the same — 27,200 — even though total enrollment dropped by 11,000 students in that same time period in school districts serving Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Schoharie counties. There are 118,039 students in the public schools of the five counties included in the state Department of Labor’s Capital Region metropolitan statistical area, down from 129,139 in 2005.

So what happened?…..

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