recession

Welcome to the conservative "recovery," where public-sector jobs are being cut in droves

September 2, 2011 by Uppity Wisconsin

At ThinkProgress.org, journalist Matt Yglesias points to a little noticed component of conservative political mantra that's holding back the national economic recovery -- one that's clearly at work right here in Wisconsin: Cuts in public-sector employment that offset private-sector job growth.

Imagine for a moment if Boston, Denver, or Seattle [or, we might add, Milwaukee] — cities of roughly 600,000 residents — simply disappeared. Well, since the recession officially ended, about 600,000 public sector jobs previously held by 600,000 real people have disappeared from the economy — consistently offsetting some of the gains made in the private sector. Indeed, today’s stunner headline that ZERO jobs were created in August was the result of 17,000 new private sector jobs being offset by 17,000 more government jobs being axed.

Yglesias expands on this fact: