The Decline in Federal Jobs

The National Review reports:

Since Bush took office in January 2001, government jobs have dropped by 51,000 — nearly 2 percent. That may not look like much, but it is a continuation of a trend that represents a small victory for fiscal conservatives and economic libertarians — those who support limited government and the philosophical principle of a smaller federal labor force.



The Bureau of Labor Statistics, since its founding by Congress in 1884, has at times refined its methodology for measuring nonfarm employment. The most recent improvement occurred in 2003 when the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) replaced the U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. The federal employment time series “was revised slightly in scope and definition due to a change in source data and estimation methods.” The federal job decline now appears in both seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted BLS data.



The data show that total federal employment peaked under President George H.W. Bush at 3.4 million in May 1990. That number, as measured by the BLS, fell to 3 million by the time Bush the Elder left office. President Bill Clinton continued the trend while president, and is one of two Democrats (the other was Harry S. Truman) in the postwar era who presided over a decline in total federal employment. Government jobs also dropped under Republicans Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gerald R. Ford.

We hope it's a trend.