Do we need more government jobs in healthcare?(Or anywhere else for that matter.)

Government jobs increase even as unemployment in the private sector rises.

During the past year, total state- and local-government employment rose in 30 states and declined in 16, with employment in the remaining states unchanged. Since the recession began, state and local governments have added a total of about 110,000 jobs, an increase of 0.6 per cent.

The finding is contained in a report released today by the Rockefeller Institute, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York.

News release here.
Full report here. (PDF 2.4MB)

GOVERMENT EMPLOYMENT and PRIVATE SECTOR UNEMPLOYMENT
FACT: Government employment accounts for more than 22 million jobs — 17 percent of total U.S. employment — with state and local governments accounting for the vast majority of this. (Approximately 59% of local government employees are in education.)

FACT: Private sector employment for the nation as a whole has fallen by 6.9 million jobs between the December 2007 start of the recession and July 2009.

OTHER FINDINGS
California’s 2009-10 budget gap was so large that even if it had laid off every single state government employee, it barely came close to eliminating its budget gap.

HOUSING PRICE DECLINES
Jan-March 2007 to Jan-March 2009
Nevada (28.4)
California (25.9)
Florida (22.1)
Arizona (18.8)
Rhode Island (10.8)
Maryland (9.4)
Michigan (7.5)
New Jersey (7.1)
Dist. of Columbia (6.3)
Hawaii (6.1)
Massachusetts (6.1)
New Hampshire (5.5)
Connecticut (5.0)
(Twenty-eight states experienced no decline. See pg 12 for full chart.)

STIMULUS MONEY PRESERVING GOVERNMENT JOBS
"Another factor contributing to government employment stability in this recession is the federal stimulus package, one goal of which was to help preserve services provided by state and local government. Through late July more than $36 billion has been disbursed by the federal government to states for fiscal relief. " pg 15