Via Economist's View
A Lost Decade for Jobs
Posted by: Michael Mandel on June 23
Private sector job growth was almost non-existent over the past ten years. Take a look at this horrifying chart:
Between May 1999 and May 2009, employment in the private sector sector only rose by 1.1%, by far the lowest 10-year increase in the post-depression period.
It’s impossible to overstate how bad this is. Basically speaking, the private sector job machine has almost completely stalled over the past ten years.
Take a look at this chart:
Over the past 10 years, the private sector has generated roughly 1.1 million additional jobs, or about 100K per year. The public sector created about 2.4 million jobs.
But even that gives the private sector too much credit. Remember that the private sector includes health care, social assistance, and education, all areas which receive a lot of government support. I’ve been talking about the HealthEdGov sector. Take a look at this table:
10-year Job Growth: HealthEdGov Sector Dominates
Industry Change, May 1999-2009
(thousands of jobs)*
Private healthcare 2898 Food and drinking places 1567 Gov educ 1390 Professional and business services 885 Gov except health and ed 843 Social assistance 796 Private education 772 Arts, entertainment, and recreation 188 Gov health 148 Mining 133 Financial activities 130 Utilities -40 Transportation and warehousing -43 Retail -91 Accomodations -119 Wholesale -166 Construction -238 Information -525 Manufacturing -5372
*Gov health and gov educ based on April 2009 estimates Data: BLS
Most of the industries which had positive job growth over the past ten years were in the HealthEdGov sector. In fact, financial job growth was nearly nonexistent once we take out the health insurers.
Let me finish with a final chart.
Without a decade of growing government support from rising health and education spending and soaring budget deficits, the labor market would have been flat on its back.
Reply With Quote
