Nah, you can still get those jobs in government and just as those jobs and the liabilities owed to the retirees holding those jobs are killing industry in America there will come a day of reckoning when the liabilities incurred by all levels of government may kill the big goose.
Those liabilities are coming faster than you think.
Starting in 2006, GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board) 45 will require that OPEB's (Other Post Employment Benefits) such as retiree health care MUST shown as an accrued liability on the budget, similar to pension benefits. Rather than using pay-as-you-go for retiree benefits (which does not show the "true" cost of health care for employees over the life of that employee), GASB 45 requires public entities to estimate the future value of such benefits for its retirees and then calculate an actuarially derived yearly expense to be shown in the entity budget.
The implications of GASB 45 are huge, because the actuarially derived yearly expense of health care for retirees will end up going against the bottom line - and may (ok, WILL) cause public entities to increase the tax levy to fund this liability.
GASB 45 does not require entities to FUND the liability but just to REPORT it, but in reality, entities will have to fund this liability in some fashion. I believe this will end up forcing many small public entities to raise taxes even more to cover this "new" liability.
Offering health care upon retirement to public employees without provisions to control cost is not only irresponsible, but will "bankrupt" many public entities. In many instances, it is a "guaranteed" benefit that has a highly variable cost.