Puerto Rico claims it may need to eliminate 30,000, or about 24% of public employees to help tackle budget issues. The U.S. territory might also freeze wages for two years, and the governor has said he will cut his own salary by 10%. The cost-cutting measures would begin in July. Puerto Rico faces a $3.2 billion budget deficit this year alone, though the cumulative deficit is much higher ? coming in at $21 billion. About two thirds of the island's funding comes from the U.S. federal government.
See "Government Layoffs on Horizon", Omaya Sosa Pascual, The New York Times, March 3, 2009