Earlier today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., made some careless remarks that the unemployed in the private sector will probably resent: “Private sector jobs are doing just fine.” He made the case that those really hurting are government workers, and that this creates a need for further government spending increases.
As it happens, Reid is correct, but only if you ignore the first half of the recession. The Republican staff on the Senate Finance Committee chimes in:
Recommended Stories
It would be difficult to be more wrong. According to an analysis by the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee using Bureau of Labor Statistics data, since the beginning of the recent recession (Dec. 2007), there have been 6,257,000 private sector job losses (a 5.41% decline) and 392,000 total government (federal + state + local) job losses (a 1.75% decline).
