Government Employment Way Down

Government Employment »

Way down.

During today’s round table on ABC, Rand Paul seemed shocked at Paul Krugman's claim that government employment is down under Obama. Of course, it is. But maybe he’s thinking of the fact that since govt employment rose under Bush, we’re still at higher absolute levels than we were a decade ago.

That is, however, a strange comparison: other things equal, you’d expect government employment to grow with population (remember, the typical government employee is a schoolteacher). And here’s what has happened to government employment per capita.

Posted by Paul Krugman | September 9, 2012, 10:40 AM