We haven't been hearing much about it on the FR or on talk radio becuase it flies in the face of the narrative, but reality is that the federal workforce has been shrinking, a lot, and for a long time.
We haven't been hearing much about it on the FR or on talk radio becuase it flies in the face of the narrative, but reality is that the federal workforce has been shrinking, a lot, and for a long time.
Interesting.
I went to a seminar featuring some HR people the other day. They spoke of the difficulty of luring people away from the private sector to come work for the government.
It probably does not help that it takes so long both to place a job announcement and to hire people after the job is announced. The process can take months... potential workers can easily find private sector employment before the HR system fully processes their job application.
“We haven’t been hearing much about it on the FR or on talk radio becuase it flies in the face of the narrative, but reality is that the federal workforce has been shrinking, a lot, and for a long time.”
Although the federal government full time workforce has declined, the number of contract employees and consultants has exploded. It is nearly impossible to get a handle on the number of contract employees, as the linked article discusses.
http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2015/03/even-cbo-stumped-size-contractor-workforce/107436/
If this graph represented total federal employment (contract and payroll) would it show the same trend?
Look also at the segments of the federal workforce. The space program (NASA) has seen a significant decline in workers as the government has outsourced space flight to Russia and federal subsidized private companies. Defense has also declined with the drawdown in the size of the military. If Defense department employment dropped by 25% while HHS, HUD, DOE, EPA, and other bureaucracies grew, should we applaud the government?
Advances in information technology has negatively impacted administrative employment in private industry and government. One key question is has government used technology as effectively as private industry to replace clerical jobs. If not, the reduction in federal employment is not impressive.
Finally, consider the size of the federal payroll, including contractors, in dollars not headcount. We know compensation in the public sector has grown disproportionately to the private sector.
Are members of the military included in their determination of “total federal personnel”?
Really? I would have thought it was bigger than its ever been.
How many gov’t employees are just being replaced with contractors?
The problem with that chart is that it shows all federal employees, including military personnel. It’s not the size of the federal bureaucracy that’s shrinking...it’s our defense capability that’s shrinking.