U.S. Government Employees Hit New All-Time High
Chart of the Week #12
Government employees in the United States reached nearly 23.4 million in June 2024, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s the total number of people working for local, state, and federal governments in the U.S. But it doesn’t include employees of the CIA, NSA, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, or military personnel.
The 23.4 million figure is actually the highest ever recorded. Take a look at the chart below.
After a sharp drop at the start of the pandemic, government employees exceeded 23 million for the first time in December and have been on the rise since then. In fact, so far in 2024, the government has added an average of 48,000 jobs per month, which is on par with last year but more than double the average monthly gain of 23,000 in 2022.
Another thing that should jump out at you from the graph above is the general trend. Apart from a few instances over the last 85 years, the number of government employees has consistently gone up. In fact, between 1939 and now, it’s increased nearly sixfold.
Many of these jobs are, at best, useless. But the constantly growing number of government employees brings all sorts of other negatives, like more bureaucracy, a bigger tax burden, and increased government spending and overreach. As an “added bonus,” it also weighs down the private sector's growth and innovation, leading to an imbalance in the economy.
And while I'm sure most are fine individuals, as a group, government employees have a vested interest in upholding the status quo and keeping things the way they are.
The problem is that most government employees have near-guaranteed job security due to civil service protections. The drop during the pandemic only happened because many state and local governments used measures like temporary unpaid leaves and early retirement incentives to reduce staff without firings. Outside of a situation like that, you'd have to do something absolutely obscene to get fired. So, the number of government employees will almost definitely continue to go up until it reaches a breaking point.
Regards,
Lau Vegys
The trend is a direct result of the lack of any required accountability…” We need more staff!” Is never met with a requirement to be more productive, they just increase the budget, and the team leader requests a “grade” increase (higher salary) because they are now managing a bigger team…
Another effect of the increasing number of government employees is that GDP figures measure more and more unproductive national expenditures rather than actual productive contributions to the economy. There's a difference between productive growth and unproductive growth.