US public sector payroll under 5 presidents – graph

from David Ruccio

As Bill McBride explains,

The public sector grew during Mr. Reagan’s terms (up 1,414,000), during Mr. G.H.W. Bush’s term (up 1,127,000), during Mr. Clinton’s terms (up 1,934,000), and during Mr. G.W. Bush’s terms (up 1,748,000 jobs).

However the public sector has declined significantly since Mr. Obama took office (down 726,000 jobs). These job losses have mostly been at the state and local level, but more recently at the Federal level.  This has been a significant drag on overall employment.

Increasing public-sector jobs was never going to solve the problem of the Second Great Depression. But public-sector job losses under Obama have certainly made things worse.