Stunning success for the tax-cuts at any cost (ahem... deficts) team

A Lost Decade for Jobs

Private sector job growth was almost non-existent over the past ten years. Take a look at this horrifying chart:

Between May 1999 and May 2009, employment in the private sector sector only rose by 1.1%, by far the lowest 10-year increase in the post-depression period.

It’s impossible to overstate how bad this is. Basically speaking, the private sector job machine has almost completely stalled over the past ten years. Take a look at this chart:

Over the past 10 years, the private sector has generated roughly 1.1 million additional jobs, or about 100K per year. The public sector created about 2.4 million jobs.

But even that gives the private sector too much credit. Remember that the private sector includes health care, social assistance, and education, all areas which receive a lot of government support. I’ve been talking about the HealthEdGov sector. Take a look at this table:

10-year Job Growth: HealthEdGov Sector Dominates
Industry	Change, May 1999-2009
	(thousands of jobs)*
Private healthcare	2898
Food and drinking places	1567
Gov educ	1390
Professional and business services	885
Gov except health and ed	843
Social assistance	796
Private education	772
Arts, entertainment, and recreation	188
Gov health	148
Mining	133
Financial activities	130
Utilities	-40
Transportation and warehousing	-43
Retail	-91
Accomodations	-119
Wholesale	-166
Construction	-238
Information	-525
Manufacturing	-5372
*Gov health and gov educ based on April 2009 estimates
Data: BLS

Most of the industries which had positive job growth over the past ten years were in the HealthEdGov sector. In fact, financial job growth was nearly nonexistent once we take out the health insurers.

Let me finish with a final chart.

Without a decade of growing government support from rising health and education spending and soaring budget deficits, the labor market would have been flat on its back.

Posted via web from Jim Nichols