Chart of the Day
posted at 12:55 pm on January 6, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
This comes from Business Insider, and it provides a natural follow-up to my post from last week as to why public-sector workers are more optimistic than private-sector employees. For the first time, the US has more government workers than goods-producing workers:
The significant dropoff comes from the sharp increase in unemployment over the last year. As I wrote before, that drop in employment has only impacted the private sector. Government jobs are only off of their peak by 35,000, while the private sector has lost three million positions.
But there’s more to this than just the current economic system. That line stretched back to 1939, and in 71 years, there has only been two significant declines in government employment. The first came at the end of World War II, when we released large numbers of workers back to the private sector. The second came in the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan tried scaling back the size of government.
Otherwise, in 71 years, the rate of growth in government employment has been more constant than anything I’ve seen in economics. It has been an inexorable inflation of government, a symptom of the encroaching bureaucracy and capital destruction that has plagued the US since the New Deal.
Blowback
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Obamanomics
faraway on January 6, 2010 at 12:56 PM
We’re doomed.
ROCnPhilly on January 6, 2010 at 12:57 PM
This is a great chart! Wait, I was looking at it upside down.
LibTired on January 6, 2010 at 12:58 PM
Waits for the Trolls.
upinak on January 6, 2010 at 12:58 PM
People need to be controlled and regulated. Like cows.
lorien1973 on January 6, 2010 at 1:00 PM
WTF kind of scale is that on the bottom? Alternating between 5/6 and then finishing with 4 years?
man. screwy.
alexwest on January 6, 2010 at 1:01 PM
Not…good…
perroviejo on January 6, 2010 at 1:02 PM
show this chart to a dem and hide the axis labels and tell them it’s atmospheric CO2 in red and polar ice in blue. then, say wooops, no it aint……it’s big daddy suga’ govmint….
ted c on January 6, 2010 at 1:02 PM
BHO: The system is working…
d1carter on January 6, 2010 at 1:04 PM
Anyone with even a whiff of knowledge of how a free enterprise system works will look at this chart and know that our free market days are numbered.
Depressing.
VelvetElvis on January 6, 2010 at 1:04 PM
Assuming from the headers on the chart, it’s comparing good-producing workers, which I assume refers to manufacturing type jobs, as opposed to service industries, so the growth has been slower because we’re gradually becoming more service oriented in terms of jobs.
It’s still absolutely appalling that the government has grown so steadily, in any case.
Scott P on January 6, 2010 at 1:04 PM
Wonder if a new type of hockey stick will hide the decline?
Little Nell on January 6, 2010 at 1:04 PM
New Democcrat idea, everyone works for the government and there will be no unemployment.
WashJeff on January 6, 2010 at 1:06 PM
Good enough for government work.
lorien1973 on January 6, 2010 at 1:06 PM
The blue line should be labeled “SERFS” not “EMPLOYEES”.
bloviator on January 6, 2010 at 1:06 PM
So basically there are now more voters with a vested interest in keeping government big and growing than voters who have a vested interest in scaling it back. Wonder who could have come up with that strategy?
AmericanUnderground on January 6, 2010 at 1:06 PM
A misleading chart, at best. More accurate would be public-sector workers as a percentage of the workforce.
Besides, the main driver in the decline in “goods producing” jobs has been the movement of manufacturing to sweatshops in places like China and Mexico, a trend that all good free marketers support.
We’re a service economy now, and proud of it!
Also note that the single biggest drop came during the Bush years, for whatever that’s worth.
Bleeds Blue on January 6, 2010 at 1:06 PM
Look at the bright side..eventually the parasite is gonna kill the host.
Wheee…..
BigWyo on January 6, 2010 at 1:06 PM
SCARY!
jukin on January 6, 2010 at 1:07 PM
“I know your your fair share is in here somewhere.”
WashJeff on January 6, 2010 at 1:08 PM
I wonder…
Workers that work for a fixed wage with fixed hours loose there jobs in economic downturns. People who get payed on a by-the-job basis end up either having to lower their prices or work less – either way, they loose income, but may not be unemployed. Where does that fit in here?
Count to 10 on January 6, 2010 at 1:08 PM
A large number of them in unions too.
BowHuntingTexas on January 6, 2010 at 1:09 PM
This is NOT a good thing.
stenwin77 on January 6, 2010 at 1:09 PM
God Bless Ronald Reagan.
Trusser13 on January 6, 2010 at 1:09 PM
Just wondering: How well does the growth in government employees correlate to the growth in the US population? How has the ratio of citizens to government bureaucrats changed over the same time span?
Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?
ZenDraken on January 6, 2010 at 1:10 PM
Notice the only decline in Gov’t pay since the end of WWII happened in 1981-84?
No wonder the Dems hate Reagan.
uknowmorethanme on January 6, 2010 at 1:11 PM
Did they mean to say
“Clusterstock” Chart of the Day?
“Stock” not the best word…
Haiku Guy on January 6, 2010 at 1:11 PM
I knew someone would blame Bush.
Tell me, how do you like the notion of letting China & Mexico growing the food you eat?
Better yet, how great is it really going to be when America produces NOTHING & must import EVERYTHING?
How long do you think that can really last without us becoming dependent upon other nations, many hostile, without one of them deciding they no longer will feed us as they have to feed themselves?
I know you are deaf to common sense, but your stupidity in such matters is extremely amazing.
Badger40 on January 6, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Hee hee!
My husband is very good at PGing (preg testing).
He spends a lot of time in the fall with his arm in a cow’s butt!
Badger40 on January 6, 2010 at 1:14 PM
Ed,
You need to add this little fact to your analysis.
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-you-should-have-gone-into-the-federal-government-2009-8
federal and private pay comparison
joshlbetts on January 6, 2010 at 1:14 PM
And here I thought that free marketers supported unburdening businesses in this country so they could compete with countries like that. Thanks for setting everyone straight!
Remember back in the day when democrats hated service industry jobs as low paying, dead end jobs? Change has come! LOL
lorien1973 on January 6, 2010 at 1:15 PM
China is also losing manufacturing jobs.
If you watch How It’s Made on the Science Channel, you will see that people just are needed very often to make things. Many of the jobs that they do show on that program would drive many people nuts due to the monontony.
WashJeff on January 6, 2010 at 1:15 PM
I think that was the plan from the get go.
Johnnyreb on January 6, 2010 at 1:15 PM
Hey, on the bright side, according to the above chart, Bleeds Blue is Hemorrhage Red for the day…. ;)
atlgal on January 6, 2010 at 1:15 PM
Hah! That’s how Disney Whirl treats people. I don’t ever go there anymore, but when I did take my son and we had to weave along the rails to get to a ride? Every once in awhile someone would yell, “Moo”. Got a lot of laughs.
Key West Reader on January 6, 2010 at 1:15 PM
Didn’t read the graph.
uknowmorethanme on January 6, 2010 at 1:15 PM
This is the tipping point, folks. Economic catastrophe is within view now. Still avertable, but we better get regime change FAST!
Fishoutofwater on January 6, 2010 at 1:17 PM
This is only the beginning. What will it be once Obamacare is actually implemented? Goodbye Dr.s. Goodbye Nurses. Goodbye Insurance Company Personnel. Goodbye to suppliers.
This will not end without bloodshed.
PappaMac on January 6, 2010 at 1:17 PM
A misleading chart, at best. More accurate would be public-sector workers as a percentage of the workforce.
(It just went over 51%. How is it misleading?)
Besides, the main driver in the decline in “goods producing” jobs has been
the movement of manufacturing to sweatshops in places like China and MexicoOver regulation and high taxes, a trend that all good free marketerssupportdenounce and avoid by moving jobs overseas.We’re a service economy now, and proud of it!
Also note that the single biggest drop came during the Bush years, for whatever that’s worth.
Wasn’t that right after the dot-com bubble that Clinton oversaw burst?
Bleeds Blue on January 6, 2010 at 1:06 PM
Wine_N_Dine on January 6, 2010 at 1:17 PM
I hope he is washing his hands before dinner.
Thanks for making those O’so delicious cows!
WashJeff on January 6, 2010 at 1:17 PM
So, Ed, did Obama inherit this, too?
DaydreamBeliever on January 6, 2010 at 1:18 PM
Wrong, my myopic friend. It starts to drop dramatically right at 2006, (when the Democrats took over the House), and is still plummeting. (see your eye doctor soon)
Rovin on January 6, 2010 at 1:18 PM
He tried, but it looks like he didn’t succeed in the end—in 1988, he left the number of government employees larger than what he had in 1980. I understand that some of this might be due to the arms race (which was necessary), but a conservative would hope that he should have been able to cut government elsewhere enough to compensate for that increase.
Will we ever get the government back to the way it was: unobtrusive and out of the way, not a monster that employs nearly 10% of U.S. population?
novakyu on January 6, 2010 at 1:18 PM
One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. “Oh, no,” I said. “Disneyland burned down.” He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.
lorien1973 on January 6, 2010 at 1:19 PM
They could have kept it consistent and finish out the graph with five years, but those ’10 numbers would have been questionable…
/sarc
(Yes they could have reworked the scale as well, just couldn’t leave that low-hanging fruit unpicked)
cs89 on January 6, 2010 at 1:20 PM
Free trade, NAFTA, and other such legislation has killed our manufacturing. It’s purposeful of course, something the tinfoil crowd has been PROVING for years and only now everyone is catching on. Even Rush is now saying that the economic squeeze is purposeful, this after years of ridiculing those who have been trumpeting what’s coming for years. Rush can Alinsky others like a pro, but he looks like a pampered buffoon now that everything he ridiculed is coming to pass.
True_King on January 6, 2010 at 1:20 PM
Ayn Rand
alohapundit on January 6, 2010 at 1:21 PM
US Population 1939 – 131,000,000
Gov’t Employees 1939 – 4.5 Million
29.1 Citizens per Gov’t Employee in 1939
US Population 2009 – 305,000,000
Gov’t Employees 2009 – 22.5 Million
13.5 Citizens per Gov’t Employee in 2009
Gov’t employment as a portion of the population has grown by a factor of 2.2 times between 1939 and today.
Haiku Guy on January 6, 2010 at 1:21 PM
BOTH PARTIES HAVE FAILED….
Good to know that the only drop actually happened on a Conservatives watch.
Let’s hope we get to see this line go down again starting 1-20-13 (shortly after noon).
PappyD61 on January 6, 2010 at 1:21 PM
The arguments against NAFTA and free trade are backwards. Ross Perot’s giant flushing sound was right, but the end result of his thinking was wrong.
Yes, because of over-regulation and burdens on business, manufacturing is leaving. That’s a reason to unburden business and de-regulate, not a reason to stifle free trade.
That’s the point.
lorien1973 on January 6, 2010 at 1:23 PM
We have 37 guys at our company that put 1 rivet into 1 hole over and over and over for 12 hours. One guy has been doing it for over 9 years now. 9 years X 26 weeks X 120 hours X 550 Rivets/Hour = Approx 15,444,000 rivets assembled in his career.
uknowmorethanme on January 6, 2010 at 1:23 PM
What your link didn’t mention what it does at the original one.
“The Government category includes 2.8 million federal employees and almost 20 million state and local workers, just over half of whom work in education.”
So 1/2 of these government employees work in the education system now.
JeffinSac on January 6, 2010 at 1:24 PM
oh wow….
Unsustainable…
sonofdy on January 6, 2010 at 1:25 PM
Yet they have nothing to do with education. Or working.
lorien1973 on January 6, 2010 at 1:25 PM
It jumps to a factor of 5 I’d bet if Obamacare becomes law.
uknowmorethanme on January 6, 2010 at 1:25 PM
There is something huge everyone is missing that should go along with this chart. The total US populaiton in 1939 was 130,879,718 (or there about) and in 2008 it was 303,824,640. The population tripled but jobs that actually produce goods went from about 12,000,000 to only about 25,000,000, just barely doubled. We either got more efficient by a couple of orders of magnitude, or we shipped about 25,000,000 manufacturing jobs oversees during those years.
That is some scary stuff.
Johnnyreb on January 6, 2010 at 1:26 PM
Thanks, Haiku!
ZenDraken on January 6, 2010 at 1:26 PM
It wouldn’t be so bad if government employees paid their taxes … oh, wait, they don’t …
we are doomed
jen on January 6, 2010 at 1:27 PM
That is amazing. I can understand if that person goes for a few beers after work each day.
WashJeff on January 6, 2010 at 1:27 PM
My foreman does, too. We call him the King of Foreplay.
( ; ^ )
TXUS on January 6, 2010 at 1:28 PM
And what a damn FINE JOB they are doing, eh? More govt workers is the answer, for sure.
Fishoutofwater on January 6, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Johnnyreb there have been huge increases in efficiency since then though. That’s part of a growing economy.
Wine_N_Dine on January 6, 2010 at 1:29 PM
I’ll bet those 35K are all postal workers who accepted early-retirement offers …like me.
jgapinoy on January 6, 2010 at 1:30 PM
We and most of the world got a lot more efficient.
WashJeff on January 6, 2010 at 1:31 PM
How could we be proud of being a service oriented economy? For the most part, you don’t outsource service to other countries. We sell products overseas to gain currency. If we only do service, our economy could not grow because we are not gaining monetarily from outside sources.
So we rely on other countries for our “goods” (import), reduce our export even more. It’s not rocket science to figure out, we don’t have the money to pay all the excess government employees. It’s only a matter of time until our nation is bankrupt.
When we produce goods that we can export, and they are greater than our imports, then we work on getting out of debt. We’ve had greater imports in monetary value than exports since the 70′s. We’ve been bleeding and no one has fixed the problem, but only bandaged it.
So to become a service oriented economy and to be proud of it, tells me you have no clue as to “simple” economics.
jeridhill on January 6, 2010 at 1:31 PM
Instead of having “answers” on a math test, they should just call them “impressions,” and if you got a different “impression,” so what, can’t we all be brothers?
LibTired on January 6, 2010 at 1:32 PM
I used to think when we got to this point the government would have to start taking ownership of our natural resources to pay the bills.
Instead, they are taking over Health Care.
They own us now.
cntrlfrk on January 6, 2010 at 1:32 PM
We are all Socialists now.
Holger on January 6, 2010 at 1:33 PM
I’m having trouble believing this chart. As you see in 2009, there is a tiny dip in government employees. Yet we know that Obama created more than 100k government jobs (I think it’s closer to a quarter mil). How is this explained?
Kevin M on January 6, 2010 at 1:33 PM
It wasn’t too long ago we read about Gov’t employees owing billions in back taxes.
uknowmorethanme on January 6, 2010 at 1:35 PM
I would guess layoffs at the state and local levels.
LibTired on January 6, 2010 at 1:35 PM
Obamanomics
faraway on January 6, 2010 at 12:56 PM
In all honesty, you can’t just lay it at his feet. It’s Bushonomics too.
RWLA on January 6, 2010 at 1:37 PM
This is a terrific campaigh issue.
paging Mr. Rubio…
booter on January 6, 2010 at 1:37 PM
Read the link. The chart represents federal and state gov’t jobs. So the dip in 2008-9 can be explained by by the state gov’t layoffs offsetting the Federal gov’t gains.
uknowmorethanme on January 6, 2010 at 1:37 PM
We must get these incompetent dolts out of office before we’re all destroyed.
rplat on January 6, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Wait until a HC bureaucracy takes hold, an extra million federal employees to pay for. Yay.
Bishop on January 6, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Bush clearly presided over manufacturing job losses while we had manufacturing job gains in the Clinton years. Inconvenient truths, I suppose, but true, nonetheless.
I am not sure we disagree on this, entirely. More Americans should be manufacturing and farming. However, correlating the decline in those sectors with “the growth of government” because the graphs match up is simply stupid.
Are you suggesting we should free up our market so that American workers can make the same wages as workers in a Chinese sneaker factory?
We still don’t care for Mcjobs btw. Not sure where your second comment comes from.
Bleeds Blue on January 6, 2010 at 1:39 PM
Actually, this is the culmination of everything the founding fathers warned about and attempted to restrain via the Constitution.
uknowmorethanme on January 6, 2010 at 1:42 PM
Guess what, this chart probably counts all the GM and Chrysler workers as goods-producers, when they are now essentially government employees. It probably doesn\’t count all the people who work in the big banks as government employees, when they essentially are. So it has undercounted government employees by about a half-million.Have a nice day!
rockmom on January 6, 2010 at 1:42 PM
I just heard some blurb on the radio about Schwarzenegger planning on creating more government jobs before he leaves office. They can’t even meet their budget year after year, they can’t pay their vendors, gov. workers demand raises and increased pension benefits every year, and they want to increase government? Smart.
Blake on January 6, 2010 at 1:42 PM
I would think Government employees is not limited to Federal Government employees but includes state and local employees too. Like teachers, sanitation men, police, firefighters, etc. America has gone from a goods-producing nation to an information-producing nation in the private sector so this chart is no surprise at all.
LODGE4 on January 6, 2010 at 1:42 PM
Gov’t regulation costs money. The payroll is simply a fraction of the overall costs of doing business in America. A larger cost for many, is navigating Gov’t regulation and taxes. Why should we cut the payroll when we can cut the regulation and tax burden? Why should we punish the employee while allowing the Gov’t to continue on?
uknowmorethanme on January 6, 2010 at 1:46 PM
The goods producers are working stupidly.
Mr. Arrogant on January 6, 2010 at 1:46 PM
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Features/BudgetChartbook/Ratio-of-Workers-to-Social-Security-Beneficiaries-Declining.aspx
Add this to the thread chart, and you have oh sh1t.
Support limited government candidates only. The beast must be stopped.
GnuBreed on January 6, 2010 at 1:47 PM
I’d like to see someone make an attempt to divide the “federal” employees into two groups, “constitutionally employed” and “unconstitutionally employed.”
Kralizec on January 6, 2010 at 1:47 PM
FIFY
ihasurnominashun on January 6, 2010 at 1:49 PM
At some point, as that redline keeps ascending, free men and women will starting looking around for a new land of opportunity. Where will that be?
james23 on January 6, 2010 at 1:50 PM
I’m suggesting we reduce costs on business here so they can afford to stay in the country and be competitive. If you think that has everything to do with wages, then that’s really an issue in your own head, isn’t it?
Maybe this:
LOL.
lorien1973 on January 6, 2010 at 1:50 PM
You are most welcome! Remeber: buy AMERICAN beef: it’s the best!
I have no opinion on the graph.
But being proud of being a “service” economy is insanity.
I was hoping you were kidding.
So NAFTA was a good thing? Ask Texans, New Mexicans, Arizonans, & other just how great that was.
Clinton was better than BO. But he was kept more in line by the GOP dmoinant Congress.
Unions-the love of Dems- have done their integral part in bringing down manufacturing jobs.
Bush did a lot of things I hated, but very few politicians now, Dem or GOP, are worth a damn.
And the road you wish to take us down, judging by your own comments over the last long while that I have seen will turn us all into service-oriented slaves.
Most of your ‘ideas’ are the antithesis of remaining a free Republic.
Badger40 on January 6, 2010 at 1:50 PM
Nice straw man. The point is to free up our producers so the can compete with stuff shipped from thousands of miles away across the largest ocean in the world at the same time oil prices begin to skyrocket. Can we at least have that much?
WitchDoctor on January 6, 2010 at 1:50 PM
“constitutionally employed”: Joe Biden
“unconstitutionally employed”: Barack Obama
;-)
WashJeff on January 6, 2010 at 1:51 PM
I understand the increase in efficiency in all sectors, but in the US we consume a huge amount more than the average person did in 1939. That to me would negate most of the increases in efficiency, and the remaining “missing” jobs has to be jobs that have migrated overseas.
Johnnyreb on January 6, 2010 at 1:52 PM
And why is it we trade with countries like China that suppress the liberties of its citizens so brutally?
Why is it that Canadians can use antibiotics & other medicines that are banned in the US on their cattle, & then turn right around & sell that cattle here for YOU to eat with no penalty?
I really don’t get this ‘fair trade’ thing bcs NOTHING about it is fair.
Badger40 on January 6, 2010 at 1:53 PM
That chart won’t be improving for the private sector any time soon.
I just heard on the radio that Florida business owners will be hit with a 500% to 1000% increase in unemployment tax.
One man said he paid $4000 last year and he will be paying $20,000 this year.
When you couple the endless unemployment benefits with the massive size of the federal government, that chart will continue at its current rate for a long time to come.
Feed the pig.
Mark Boabaca on January 6, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Well if you want to talk efficiency, you can look at the agriculture sector & even though, as you say, we may consume more, it is in no way even CLOSE to being a ‘non’ increase.
I suspect that industry is much the same.
You would do well to look more at the history of manufacturing & efficiency.
Negation has not happened, as you say.
That is why we were the best.
We aren’t now bcs govt & unions has tied industry’s hands, making it easier & cheaper to do it overseas.
Badger40 on January 6, 2010 at 1:55 PM
I’m sure that DaveS would agree that this is a good thing, so even more people can be asked how much money they make by our airport rent-a-thugs.
DaveHusseinS on January 6, 2010 at 1:56 PM
First, we cannot produce everything we consume. I think twice in the last 20 years we have had periods of sub 5% employment (full employment) and still imported a lot of stuff. So we need to import stuff.
lorien1973, at January 6, 2010 at 1:50 PM, made another key point that conservatives can agree on regarding business regulations. Don’t make American manufacturers compete with one hand tied behind their back.
One thing we do not want to lose is being the most innovative country on the planet. I think companies like Apple are doing the right thing engineering and designing their products in America and having them made in China (and again it is understandable given the regulations in America). I love their mobile products and their selling price. This allows them to own the market and keep the profits in America.
WashJeff on January 6, 2010 at 2:03 PM
Facts to add in…
In 1939 US Population was about 131 Million people
Today, 310 Million…
So while the increase in Government workers is larger than the population growth… by a factor of more than 100%
What is more disturbing is the decrease in the percentage of those who produce actual Wealth… ie, those who produce goods.
Romeo13 on January 6, 2010 at 2:04 PM
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