Jan 03 Who's Hiring?

My friend Ed Morrissey had a post up earlier on a Rassmussen Report that shocks no one.

Government employees are much more bullish about the economy than those who work in the private sector. That’s a big change from the beginning of the year when those on the public payroll were a bit more pessimistic than private sector workers.

Data from the Rasmussen Consumer Index from the past seven days shows that a plurality of government workers think the economy is getting better while those who work in the private sector tend to have the opposite view. Those in the government sector are also more upbeat about the current state of the economy and their own personal finances.

Today, 46% of government employees say the economy is getting better while just 31% say it’s getting worse. Among those who work in the private sector, the numbers are reversed: 32% say better and 49% worse.

And why are government workers more bullish on the economy? Ed has the charts.

For one thing, government work has been a growth industry over the last few years.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the rapid increase of government employment since the last recession ended in 2003.  While the number contracted slightly in the middle of 2009, government jobs have already begun growing again.  At the moment, the level of government jobs is only 35,000 off from its August 2008 peak:

Compare that to the curve seen for the private sector, where over 3 million jobs have disappeared in Barack Obama’s first year (111,793,000 in January to 108,495,000 in November):

The Democratic agenda includes bailouts for states and rapid expansion of federal oversight in the energy and health-care sectors.  What government worker wouldn’t be encouraged by that kind of job security?

This matches up with something Rep. Mark Buesgens said in his most recent e-update.

I just spent four months on something created by DFL House Speaker Margaret Kelliher called the Minnesota House Jobs Task Force.  During countless hours of hearings and testimony from a dizzying array of political wonks, (with a minimal number of business owners sprinkled in), the goal of a more business-friendly economy rarely came up.  Instead, we heard a lot of talk about the need for more government
intervention. 

Democrats (who dominated the committee 28-8) are lining up another mammoth round of borrowing, which creates only short-term jobs in sectors dictated by the government.  They want to embark on new spending under the Orwellian pretense of retraining workers for "new" jobs - dictated by the government.

It is no wonder why private sector employees have no faith in the economy or the Administrations methods to fix it.  For the "fix" has nothing that will help grow those private sectors - in some cases (like the health care bill) the governments "cure" will be worse for these private sector employees than the current ailment. 

If the federal government (and the MN Legislature) were really serious about "jobs, jobs, jobs" they would be making it easier for ALL employers to do business.  The fact that all that talk about jobs includes job killing measures like additional taxes and increased cost of hiring employees means that the ever shrinking private sector will continue to shed jobs and the federal (and state) government simply can not hire everyone.  Something somewhere will have to give and sadly for the nation it does not look like ideology will ever give way to common sense.

Cross posted at Ladies Logic where your comments are welcome.