[agitator]

"There are bright spots, however, in the bleak jobs picture painted by McMillion. State and local governments added 600,000 workers in three years. Some 21.5 million of us now work for state, local and federal governments – one in six Americans, 7 million more workers than we have employed in all of manufacturing."

Now there's a comforting thought. I feel better already.

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Now there's a comforting thought. I feel better already

LOL Oh good! More government employees on our dime.

[Texasforever]

You want to bring back manufacturing jobs? It is simple, get rid of all computer operated machinery so that manual skill is required. It is that simple. Automation did away with killed labor and made it possible for a high wage union worker to be replaced by a cheaper non-skilled offshore worker. If you want to keep programming jobs then do away with the communications infrastructure that allows a programmer in India to work for Microsoft. See how easy it is?

[metesky]

I bet there are more. Do they count the educrats as government employees? I bet not. Firemen? Cops? All the various NGO "support groups"?

I'd say at least 1/3 work for government when you count all those who recieve their check after being funneled through various agencies, not the 1/6 the article claims.

[oceanview]

and government employment is going to continue to rise. In fact, more and more workers see government employment as the only "safe haven", something that pays a middle class wage and benefit, has retirement benefits, etc.