There is one sector of the economy that's thriving. The job growth has been unbelievable. Jobs in this sector also offer high salaries and enormous benefits. The jobs are also incredibly secure, you have lots of days off and you my not have to work all that hard. You would find this workplace nirvana working for the federal government.
CBS News reports that while the private sector is shedding jobs, the federal government has been on a hiring spree. Executive branch employment is set to increase by 15.6% for fiscal year 2010.
Here is a breakdown of some of the increases since 2006:
Homeland Security 22%
Justice Department 15%
Nuclear Reg Comm 25%
Many of those are being hired for the Census, but discounting that the increase is still 2%. Forbes layoff tracker reports the number of layoffs in the last year. Total unemployment if you count discourage workers is near 20%. Apparently President Obama's call for "shared sacrifice" does not extend to the federal government. Proposed changes to health care and the new EPA mandate to regulate greenhouse gases will add thousands, maybe millions of more federal jobs.
Federal employees are also slated for a 2% pay increase at a time when may of us are getting no increase or are having hours reduced. Speaking of pay, if you want a high salary work of Uncle Sam or even local government. According to the Cato Institute the average compensation for federal employees is $119,982, while an average worker in private industry pulls down $59,909. On average state and local government workers are paid $46.66 on average while the private sector employee makes $25.85 according to Sybil's Star. These high wages are not market driven since similar jobs in private industry pay much less. The jobs are not unpleasant. and do not require special skills. They are mostly union jobs which may account for the high wages and benefits. A CNN article companies salaries for jobs in the government and private sector. Here is what they found for a few occupations:
Attorney
Government $105,577
Private $110,520
Microbiologist
Government $80,798
Private $63,360
Librarian
Government $74,630
Private $49,110
Architect
Government $80,769
Private $68,560
Dennis Cauchon of USA Today reported this week federal employees making more than $100,000 increased from 14% to 19% during the recession. This is during a recession when 7.3 million jobs have been lost.
Employees earning more that $150,000 in the defence department has risen from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009 according recent figures.
This growth and the stunning salaries are a problem because the government has grown to a point where it now consumes half of the U.S. gross domestic product according to Alex Newman writing for the New American. The federal government is now the single biggest employer in the country. This takes money out of the pockets of consumers. It takes money out of businesses all across the country. Money that could be used to create good paying jobs for a majority of Americans, not just over compensated jobs for a minority.
Federal wags and for that matter local government wages and benefit packages need to be frozen until they come more into line with for profit companies. The government needs to stop looking at it's citizens as an endless source of revenue (taxes) to fund this out of control job growth and out of control compensation. This job growth takes money out of the private sector needed to create good paying and sustainable jobs for Americans. The government needs to act more like a business driven by the need to provide good services at a reasonable cost.
Copyright 2009@ Summit Training Publications
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