Are Public Sector Jobs Real Jobs?

With the national unemployment rate coming down slowly but steadily, about the only criticism the Republican contenders for the Presidential nomination can level is that it's not bouncing back fast enough.  So if the Obama administration's efforts to bring the economy back are on the right track, why isn't unemployment coming down faster?

One key part of the answer is the current attitude toward public employees; it's like private sector jobs are the only ones that count.  If that were the case, then the 35 years I spent teaching in public schools didn't really count for anything.  Tell that to the thousands of students I helped educate!

The fact is that the current attitude of austerity being pushed by the tea party Republicans in Washington is impacting all the way down to state and local governments, and we're seeing unprecedented layoffs of teachers, police, firefighters, and other public employees.  Yet some of the greatest economic recoveries in our history were the result of increasing public sector jobs.  You're probably thinking I'm now going to bring up FDR's public programs like the WPA and the CCC.  Sure, but how about looking at the "Reagan recovery" that is so admired by Republicans today?  During that period, characterized by excellent short-term economic improvement, public employment increased by more than 3%, as opposed to the nearly 3% decrease that has taken place over the last few years.  The effect of public employment cuts on the Obama recovery is best summarized by noted economist Paul Krugman:

• "If government employment under Mr. Obama had grown at Reagan-era rates, 1.3 million more Americans would be working as schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, etc., than are currently employed in such jobs.  And once you take the effects of public spending on private employment into account, a rough estimate is that the unemployment rate would be 1.5 percentage points lower than it is, or below 7 percent — significantly better than the Reagan economy at this stage."

For those of you who deal well with graphs, just look at this comparison from summer of 2009 through summer of 2011 of the actual unemployment rate (the blue line) vs. what the unemployment rate would look like without taking into account public sector job loss (the pink line).  The public sector effect on unemployment in the last year and a half has been nothing short of devastating.

So do we really want to cut the jobs of the people who teach our children, protect our safety, put out our fires, and maintain our roads?  And can anyone with a conscience stand up for public sector layoffs while complaining about the pace of recovery?

I welcome your comments on this and other posts.

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