Government To Workers: 'You're Fired'

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/government-to-workers-youre-fired-2013-9

One of the more interesting things during the recent recovery is that it has occurred almost entirely without aid from government employment. The USA lost 8.6 million jobs during the financial crisis (from peak to trough) and has recovered about 6.7 million of those jobs. The private sector has recovered 7.4 million of those jobs all on its own. But what’s interesting is that the government has actually shed 700,000 jobs since the 2008 peak.

Now, the reason this is unusual is because this almost never happens during a recovery. For instance, if we look at recoveries in the last 30 years you see a distinct trend in government employment. One of the largest automatic stabilizers in the economy is the government workforce. When private jobs decline and recession occurs the government tends to just plug along. But not this time around. The government has been a big detractor from employment growth during this recovery.

Of course, the government has also run consistent trillion dollar deficits during this recovery so it’s not like this has been austerity, but for all the people discussing how bad the job market is, well, here’s one of your primary reasons relative to past recoveries. If the government had done what it normally does and employed more people during the recovery then the unemployment rate would be a lot lower, we’d be above our all-time highs in non-farm payrolls and there’d be a lot less talk about Food Stamps and how miserable the recovery has been.



Read more: http://pragcap.com/chart-of-the-day-government-to-workers-youre-fired#ixzz2els8scqq

[kelliekat44]

1. It's difficult to get people to understand this. Not only Federal government has lost jobs but state

governments too. Now it is significant to me that the Federal government has been single largest equal opportunity employer with safe guards and support for minorities, women, and older employees. This is one reason why so many on the Right hate the Federal government because it was the first resort for Affirmative Action and the last resort for EEO rights. The laws are on the books. Only the Congress is exempted from those laws. So, when Federal or State workers lose their jobs the RW cheers but what people don't realize is that Federal workforce staff shortages affect food safety, disaster relief efficiency and effectiveness, national park availability to the public, timely tax refunds, timely SS issue resolutions etc. All they know is that probably some minority has lost a good job. All the angst against the old Post Office system was built on this one thing: During the late 40s-80's educated, smart, hard-working African American men could only get a good job commensurate with their education and skills in the Post Office. Soon they were moving into the ranks of management in the system because they proved to be good at their jobs. Once this happened because of long fights against discrimination within the system the RW didn't like it and thus the long history of trying to privatize and ruin the Post Office service began. The workers union had fought for and earned decent paying jobs and benefits...and of course that just didn't set well with ....well you know the story. This story is repeated over and over again with unions across America. Because unions fought for and gained decent paying jobs and benefits for ALL its workers they must also be maligned. Just check the history of unions in this country and you will find that as unions began to protect and provide equal opportunity for minorities and women they began to find disfavor among Americans...even among many of the union workers who did not like the fact that minorities and women would receive equal opportunities for advancement and protection under union contracts. My friends...the root of almost all the evil in this country begins with a racist seed.