[churchillbuff]

You still haven't addressed his specific points. He says that the private-sector job market is not growing, only the government-sector job market. He says that the composition of the private sector job market is changing - - that it's more at the low end, less at the high end. Do you have statistics that refute either of these claims? As a long-time freemarketer, I really want to believe he's wrong. But he's citing statistics, and I want to see evidence that he's wrong, not mere rhetoric.

[snowsislander]

He says that the private-sector job market is not growing, only the government-sector job market.

Dr. Roberts is correct on this point, as you might imagine, since he is an honest observer. (Although I find that his excoriation of President Bush is far too personally harsh.)

However, on a positive note, the current trend in private employment is indeed upward, and we can all hope that it soon does cross both the numbers from its peak in 2000 and, even better, it also catches up for five years of population growth.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Series Id:     CES0500000001 Seasonally Adjusted Super Sector:  Total private Industry:      Total private NAICS Code:    N/A Data Type:     ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS
Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
1995	96980	97181	97381	97537	97544	97744	97823	98109	98347	98462	98607	98744
1996	98742	99142	99350	99532	99847	100119	100328	100574	100729	100980	101261	101432
1997	101639	101928	102235	102531	102795	102982	103232	103294	103738	104018	104302	104595
1998	104859	105028	105170	105424	105766	105967	106037	106363	106558	106734	106976	107285
1999	107393	107729	107829	108142	108364	108578	108806	108963	109121	109490	109746	109996
2000	110210	110302	110644	110860	110735	110952	111148	111167	111387	111367	111566	111680
2001	111622	111644	111565	111219	111156	110916	110763	110579	110301	109896	109551	109352
2002	109206	109077	109003	108887	108790	108831	108765	108724	108693	108735	108733	108559
2003	108614	108492	108296	108258	108252	108250	108250	108279	108432	108525	108617	108701
2004	108839	108915	109204	109516	109787	109908	109976	110105	110203	110462	110588	110728(p)
2005	110862(p)
p : preliminary

Series Id:     CES9000000001 Seasonally Adjusted Super Sector:  Government Industry:      Government NAICS Code:    N/A Data Type:     ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS
Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
1995	19397	19407	19427	19434	19418	19445	19437	19429	19430	19464	19463	19466
1996	19450	19485	19532	19515	19529	19528	19547	19504	19567	19554	19565	19571
1997	19593	19598	19608	19603	19601	19660	19686	19617	19679	19738	19761	19766
1998	19770	19786	19792	19816	19875	19879	19930	19959	19985	20001	20044	20079
1999	20084	20144	20168	20237	20229	20272	20339	20375	20404	20457	20496	20540
2000	20571	20599	20733	20802	21147	20887	20867	20837	20735	20743	20760	20804
2001	20832	20902	20946	20995	21031	21113	21178	21224	21248	21276	21328	21353
2002	21375	21401	21438	21448	21536	21546	21512	21571	21557	21574	21582	21602
2003	21633	21633	21611	21595	21575	21604	21607	21580	21521	21551	21555	21554
2004	21533	21551	21582	21607	21586	21571	21586	21645	21677	21700	21706	21699(p)
2005	21711(p)
p : preliminary