[unread]

It seems that I read somewhere that nearly half of the people in the US work for the government.. That is to say the county, city, state, etc... That's a lot of jobs, taxes and liability.. And they do tend to get the lion's share when it comes to income and retirement...

[central_va]

Uh, you should google that:

14.5 percent

The public sector employs 20.2 million people in the US, approximately 14.5 percent of the workforce.

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14.5% is WAY less than half....

[Cboldt]

Quick search says about 14% of the workforce, 7% of the population are leeches on the taxpayer.

[KarlInOhio]

I think that 50% figure included government retirees, welfare recipients and Social Security recipients.

[cyclotic]

Not America, but in Maryland and Northern Virginia, that stat is true. Something like 45% of Marylanders work for some level of government.

In the DC suburbs, it’s probably closer to 75%

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

It seems that I read somewhere that nearly half of the people in the US work for the government.

The correct statement is that 85.5% of the people in the United States work for the Federal government. The rest of us work our butts off to pay taxes to support their incredible lifestyle. If folks only knew what I've seen.