Just How Big Is the Government After the Last Recession?

Mother Jones reports:

From March 2001 (the beginning of the recession) to January 2006 government employment rose by 4.5 percent (one million jobs) to 21.9 million jobs. Over the same period, private-sector employment rose by just one percent. Government, which accounts for just 16 percent of total employment, created half of all new jobs in the four years after the recession ended. The private sector, which accounts for 84 percent of total employment, created the other half. Moreover, part of the increase in private-sector jobs involves government contract and defense-related work, so that the government'’s overall job contribution was even larger. In effect, increased government employment has masked persistent private-sector weakness.

These are some very important numbers.Obviously, Keynesian economics doesn't appear to work in the real world:in expansion times there's no cut back in government spending or government employment.Can everyone work for the government? You'll want to read the whole article.