CHART: Over 500,000 Government Jobs Lost Since Obama’s Inauguration

[Mass]

I know getting rid of public servants is seen as a good thing for Republicans and too many democrats, but those are jobs, and jobs that help people (school teachers, firemen, policemen, ...). It is amazing how it is not a bigger priority of the Democrats, and with the focus on debt relief, even more will be fired. I have to disagree with Yglesias. The WH and Dems in general have a part of the blame as they accepted the meme that the most important thing to do was to reduce the debt without stating the consequences.

http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/07/08/263588/the-conservative-recovery-continues-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+matthewyglesias+%28Matthew+Yglesias%29
CHART: Over 500,000 Government Jobs Lost Since Obama’s Inauguration



So should we blame today’s bad jobs numbers on Barack Obama’s big government policies? Again, I doubt it. What we continue to see are decent—though not great—private sector job numbers offset by tumbling public sector employment:

[blueclown]

1. What is the definition of a government job in this chart?

Because it seems like the number of "government jobs" seems to tail down after May 2010, which would signify that these jobs were created because of the stimulus and then laid off when the stimulus funds were dried out.

[Mass]

2. Typically, government jobs means jobs that are created by diverse levels of government

federal, state, counties, towns and cities.

The spike in mid 2010 represent census workers, and are not counted in the 500,000 jobs that disappeared.

[ieoeja]

17. 2010 spike and immediate dropoff was the census.

We always knew that would be temporary. And the job gain/loss should net out to zero.

The Republican wave in 2010, taking power in so many states then setting about massive layoffs, is the big killer of gov't jobs today.

[Renew Deal]

3. Are those federal or state and local jobs?

I doubt those are all federal.

[Mass]

4. All levels of government.

[Renew Deal]

5. So adding Obama's name to it is just to get attention.

It could just as well have said "from 2009 to today..."

[Mass]

7. I dont know. Ask Yglesias.

and yes, the federal government has its part of blame (less revenue to states and less federal workers as well).

[Renew Deal]

15. I'm not blaming you.

It's so much more attention grabbing to throw Obama's name in there, especially considering that Obama has nothing to do with most of those cuts.

[ProSense]

8. They're

state and local job cuts. Steve Benen

<...>

Overall, the U.S. economy added a terrible 18,000 jobs in June, but as has been the case for a long while, there was a major gap between the public and private sectors. Businesses added 57,000 jobs in May, while 39,000 jobs were lost in the public sector at the same time, thanks to budget cuts at the state and local level.

Those are, by the way, budget cuts Republicans are desperate to bring to the federal level.

<...>

Looking at the BLS reports, it's clear these have been state and local job cuts.

[Mass]

9. Not only. There are federal jobs as well.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

Federal employment declined by 14,000 in June. Employment in both state government and local
government continued to trend down over the month and has been falling since the
second half of 2008.

[ProSense]

13. Thanks. Still

unlike most state and local government, there has been a net increase in federal jobs.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

19. Federal employment is different from federal jobs LOST! That number may include retirements.

(I work for the federal government and many are retiring, fearing a loss of pensions and for other reasons.)

The bottom line is that Republican governors are targeting public workers at the state/local level and laying them off. Doing so affects the overall unemployment number. They know that most people will blame Obama/the Democrats for this. That's why they are doing this.

They lie that they are forced to lay off public workers due to budget shortfalls; however, they hand over billions in tax breaks to their wealthy friends.

WAKE UP!!!!

[Ozymanithrax]

6. Here in California, government jobs have been lost as the state tried...

to deal with its fiscal crises without increasing revenue. The drop in revenue was due to the economic crises, which led to getting rid of treachers and other government employees. Most of the other states have reacted the same, cutting employees to respond to the drop in tax revenue.

[vaberella]

10. There's nothing Obama can do about State measures which are run by a lot of Repubs.

And dumb Dems.

[Mass]

11. Yes, we know, Obama is god and powerless at the same time.

:sarcasm:
Sorry, there were things that could be done. Actually, there are things he did, like recovery funds to the states. We needed more, but this is one thing he did. So apparently, there are things he can do. and should.

[Skittles]

12. IT'S NEVER OBAMA'S FAULT, MASS!!!

GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!

[ProSense]

14. "Actually, there are things he did, like recovery funds to the states. "

And states used the funds to balance their budgets instead of creating or saving jobs.

People have to get used to the idea that Republicans are doing anything to sabotage the recovery.

[phleshdef]

16. Lets not forget that 4 Republican governors killed 4 massive high speed rail projects.

And these were ones that the stimulus would've created. Killing projects like that, the kind that could create jobs for decades to come, is a huge part of why the stim bill never got to see its full potential.

[BernieSandersIsGod]

18. gee, what happened in 2010 to make that happen? And Obama went for it. NT