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2026-02-12 Economy
Fed employment said lowest in 50 years
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Posted by trailing wife 2026-02-12 2026-02-12 00:03|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [1801 views ]  Top

1 About time.
BTW: Anyone else remember, when our paychecks looked like a Computer Data punch card with holes in it?
Posted by NN2N1 2026-02-12 02:30||   2026-02-12 02:30|| Front Page Top

2 The graph peaks during the HW Bush Administration. It is lower under layer Dem regimes. The graph of NGO and contractor employment probably peaks under the Autopen.
Posted by Super Hose 2026-02-12 04:43||   2026-02-12 04:43|| Front Page Top

3 First time a "fascist tyrant" reduced the size of government bureaucracy.
Posted by Procopius2k 2026-02-12 07:02||   2026-02-12 07:02|| Front Page Top

4 Still not low enough, can be much lower and government can still function well!
Posted by Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2026-02-12 09:05||   2026-02-12 09:05|| Front Page Top

5 1. the spikes in the graph with the red line are temporary census workers

2. although federal employment is down, that is not the case regarding State and other govt employment. There were about 4M state employees and about 16M other govt. employees as of mid 2025.
Posted by Lord Garth 2026-02-12 09:22||   2026-02-12 09:22|| Front Page Top

6  State and other govt employment.

I’d expect to see blue state and community employment to continue to rise until the collapse. In red states and communities it should drop following lowered demands from the feds for reports and actions, and as the NGOs evaporate that were creating work for them. So I suspect that will probably lag by a year or several. First the police, fire departments, and social workers will see workloads reduced from overwhelming to bearable, which I’m totally ok with.
Posted by trailing wife 2026-02-12 15:19||   2026-02-12 15:19|| Front Page Top

7 about 4M of the 'other govt' employees are teachers and another 2M or so are non teaching professionals

using individualized AI teaching and other economies, this could probably be cut to 2M teachers and 0.5 non teaching professionals

but this would take time and would face headwinds from the NEA, etc.
Posted by Lord Garth 2026-02-12 17:01||   2026-02-12 17:01|| Front Page Top

8 San Diego has had a hiring freeze. The Mayor got around it with "Program Managers". Those days are coming to an end.
Posted by Frank G 2026-02-12 19:19||   2026-02-12 19:19|| Front Page Top

23:12 Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435
21:37 Crusader
21:34 Crusader
21:30 Crusader
21:26 Crusader
21:11 trailing wife
21:01 trailing wife
20:39 Super Hose
20:27 Super Hose
19:22 Frank G
19:19 Frank G
19:07 Blackbeard Platypus8375
19:03 Blackbeard Platypus8375
18:13 SteveS
18:04 Blackbeard Platypus8375
17:51 NoMoreBS
17:40 DarthVader
17:39 Woodrow
17:37 Woodrow
17:29 Woodrow
17:01 Lord Garth
16:25 Knuckles Grundy1702
16:14 Grom the Affective
15:50 Lord Garth
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