Debunking the ‘Government Explosion in Employment’ Myth

A conservative friend just sent me one of those circulated emails that suggests the number of government employees compared to private employees have exploded in the last decade. I decided to fact check it.

Here’s the trend line in government employment since 2000. Government employment appears to be back to the same level as 2006.

Here’s the trend line in private, nonfarm, employment during the same period of time.

The Great Recession certainly had an effect on private sector employment but the economy is making steady, albeit slow, improvement in job creation. (Although the slope of the line approximates the job creation record from 2004 to 2007. Hmmm.)

Data Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Economic Research. FRED graph.