Government workers at the federal, state and local level all enjoy more job security than their private sector counterparts. Both in and out of recessions, across races, genders and education levels, government workers have a lower probability of job loss than private sector workers.

A new study found that private workers were about five percentage points more likely to lose their jobs than government workers during the Great Recession and other recessions. The gap narrows to roughly four percentage points during non-recessions.