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11/03/2011
Federal hiring proves to be recession-proof
With all eyes on Friday's jobs report, federal data show a nearly 15 percent increase in the number of executive branch employees since 2007
WASHINGTON While Democrats and Republicans in Congress fight over President Barack Obama's new jobs bill, it's worth remembering that there already is one bipartisan job creation program the two parties have agreed on since the recession began: expanding the federal workforce.
While overall payroll employment in the United States has fallen by nearly five percent since the official start of the recession in December 2007, there are 12 percent more federal workers today than there were when the downturn started, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
New jobs data will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday morning. The consensus expectation among economists is that a total of 95,000 jobs will have been added to payrolls in October. That would still put the total non-farm payroll tally at about 6.5 million fewer jobs than when the recession began in December 2007.
But the federal headcount has been recession proof, growing while many private sector firms are shedding employees or just holding job levels steady.
Nearly 15 percent increase in executive branch
A separate tally by the Office of Personnel Management, which counts most executive branch employees but excludes the Central Intelligence Agency and a few other agencies, shows a 14.8 percent increase in the number of executive branch employees from September 2007, right before the recession began, to June of this year, the most recent month for which the OPM data are available.
Video: Boomtown: Jobs await in ND town (on this page)
About 275,000 more executive branch workers have been added since September 2007, according to the OPM data.
A small part of this growth in federal employment may have been due to the $825 billion stimulus bill that President Obama signed into law in 2009, but the bulk of that money was simply forwarded to state and local governments to sustain their Medicaid programs and to allow them to hire and retain teachers and other public school employees.
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Taking the longer view, going back to the Bush presidency, a report from the Congressional Research Service found last April that that the federal workforce grew by more than 350,000 employees between 2000 (the low point during the last 12 years) and 2010, with the growth concentrated in homeland security-related agencies, DOD (Department of Defense), DVA (Department of Veterans Affairs), and the Department of Health and Human Services.
read more, video Federal hiring proves to be recession-proof - Politics - msnbc.com
Federal hiring proves to be recession-proof
With all eyes on Friday's jobs report, federal data show a nearly 15 percent increase in the number of executive branch employees since 2007
WASHINGTON While Democrats and Republicans in Congress fight over President Barack Obama's new jobs bill, it's worth remembering that there already is one bipartisan job creation program the two parties have agreed on since the recession began: expanding the federal workforce.
While overall payroll employment in the United States has fallen by nearly five percent since the official start of the recession in December 2007, there are 12 percent more federal workers today than there were when the downturn started, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
New jobs data will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday morning. The consensus expectation among economists is that a total of 95,000 jobs will have been added to payrolls in October. That would still put the total non-farm payroll tally at about 6.5 million fewer jobs than when the recession began in December 2007.
But the federal headcount has been recession proof, growing while many private sector firms are shedding employees or just holding job levels steady.
Nearly 15 percent increase in executive branch
A separate tally by the Office of Personnel Management, which counts most executive branch employees but excludes the Central Intelligence Agency and a few other agencies, shows a 14.8 percent increase in the number of executive branch employees from September 2007, right before the recession began, to June of this year, the most recent month for which the OPM data are available.
Video: Boomtown: Jobs await in ND town (on this page)
About 275,000 more executive branch workers have been added since September 2007, according to the OPM data.
A small part of this growth in federal employment may have been due to the $825 billion stimulus bill that President Obama signed into law in 2009, but the bulk of that money was simply forwarded to state and local governments to sustain their Medicaid programs and to allow them to hire and retain teachers and other public school employees.
Advertise | AdChoices
Taking the longer view, going back to the Bush presidency, a report from the Congressional Research Service found last April that that the federal workforce grew by more than 350,000 employees between 2000 (the low point during the last 12 years) and 2010, with the growth concentrated in homeland security-related agencies, DOD (Department of Defense), DVA (Department of Veterans Affairs), and the Department of Health and Human Services.
read more, video Federal hiring proves to be recession-proof - Politics - msnbc.com