For every government job in America, there are 4.7 jobs in the private sector.

That ratio gives you a sense of how much bigger the private sector is than the public sector. And when it comes to jobs added to the national economy since 2010, the private sector also trumps government. In fact, its not even close. As we chart below using EMSIs 2012.3 data on salaried workers in the U.S., private industries have added more than 3.9 million estimated jobs from 2010 to 2012. The 4% increase has been fueled by the return of manufacturing, the continuing growth of health care, and emergence of oil & gas jobs, to name a few hot sectors. During the same timeframe, the public sector has contracted by nearly half a million jobs (a 2% decrease).

The private sectors healthy growth the last two-plus years comes after it lost 6.8 million jobs from 2008 to 2010 a hole that its not close to climbing out of yet. The public sector, meanwhile, added 31,735 jobs during and immediately after the recession.

A Detailed Look At Government Losses

The following table shows where job losses have been most acute since 2010 inside the government sector. Again, these numbers come from EMSIs latest dataset, which is a combination of more than 90 data sources.

Note: EMSIs 2012 job numbers are estimates based on historic and projected data.

NAICS Code

Description

2010 Jobs

2012 Jobs

Change

% Change

2012 Avg. Annual Wage

Total

24,542,006 24,066,302

475,704

-2%

$63,092

903611

Elementary and Secondary Schools (Local Government)

7,225,837

7,017,766

208,071

-3%

$55,445

902999

State Government, Excluding Education and Hospitals

2,378,359

2,270,866

107,493

-5%

$65,886

903999

Local Government, Excluding Education and Hospitals

5,591,139

5,494,975

-96,164

-2%

$61,468

901199

Federal Government, Civilian, Excluding Postal Service

2,387,867

2,333,734

-54,133

-2%

$114,594

901149

US Postal Service

656,204

610,079

-46,125

-7%

$73,295

901200

Federal Government, Military

2,101,000

2,082,449

-18,551

-1%

$49,075

902622

Hospitals (State Government)

344,809

336,274

-8,535

-2%

$70,558

903622

Hospitals (Local Government)

650,891

645,692

-5,199

-1%

$68,735

903619

All Other Schools and Educational Support Services (Local Government)

49,041

46,019

-3,022

-6%

$48,711

902619

All Other Schools and Educational Support Services (State Government)

21,126

20,511

-615

-3%

$50,028

902611

Elementary and Secondary Schools (State Government)

61,467

62,116

649

1%

$53,861

903612

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (Local Government)

703,951

711,785

7,834

1%

$37,623

NAICS Code

Description

2010 Jobs

2012 Jobs

Change

% Change

2012 Avg. Annual Wage

902612

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (State Government)

2,370,316

2,434,036

63,720

3%

$51,790

The losses have been widespread throughout the different areas of government. Here are a few takeaways from the table:
Elementary and secondary schools (local government) have taken the biggest overall hit, shedding an estimated 208,071 jobs nationally. State government (-107,493) and local government (-96,164) have also bled jobs. Colleges, universities, and professional schools (state government) is the only detailed industry in the government sphere to grow by more than 1%.

Change in Concentration of Government Jobs by State

Now that weve looked at detailed government industries at the national level, lets turn to which states have seen the biggest change in their relative concentration of workers in the public sector. This analysis allows us to contextualize employment data. The raw jobs data from EMSI tells us, for instance, that Texas gained 77,587 government jobs from 2008-2010, then lost an estimated 82,880 from 20102012. But Texas has the second-largest population (and the second-largest workforce) in the nation, so its job growth and total job figures are naturally going to be larger than those in smaller states. With that said, how does the Lonestar State stack up to other states based on the proportion of government jobs to the total workforce? Texas concentration was slightly above average in 2008 (1.03), but has since fallen to the same as the national proportion (1.00).

Wyoming, on the other hand, is 51% more concentrated in public-sector jobs per capita than the nation the fourth-highest mark in the nation. And its seen the largest growth in concentration since 2008 (from 1.39 to 1.51). The second -biggest jump belongs to Colorado (from 1.02 to 1.08), followed by West Virginia, Mississippi, and North Carolina.

Easily the largest decrease in the concentration of government jobs from 2008 to 2012 has occurred inNorth Dakota, which has the most vibrant and fastest-growing economy in the nation. North Dakota went from being 23% more concentrated per capita than the nation in 08 to just 10% more concentrated. As the oil and gas boom brings more people from out of the state for work and puts more stress on services, it wouldnt be surprising to see North Dakotas government job numbers increase. Lastly, whats a post on the public sector without a mention of Washington, D.C.? Its more than twice as concentrated with government jobs than the nation (2.01), but like Texas and North Dakota, D.C.s public sector concentration has waned since the recession. Interested in private/public sector employment data for your state or region? Contact Josh Wright (jwright@economicmodeling.com).