GOP Reality Check: Reagan Added Public Sector Jobs During a Recession

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 12:41 am

This is a huge reason for the stubborn unemployment! President Obama doesn’t have the benefit of adding public workers to the payroll, like Reagan did.

Lets start right at the top, the Federal level. Under Reagan, federal government employment increased by 100,000 from the middle of the 1982 recession until the 1984.

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Compare this to President Obama, and employment at the federal level has remained virtually flat!

Now let’s look at the state level government employment. Under President Reagan state employment increased by 100,000.

Under President Obama employment at the state level DROPPED by 120,000.

Now finally, we look at local government employment. Under President Reagan, local government employment stayed mostly flat.

While under President Obama, local government employment dropped by 500,000.

Over the course of President Obama’s first term, all government employment lost about 600,000 jobs, while under President Reagan, total government employment INCREASED by 225,000 jobs in his FIRST TERM!

This is why the Wall Street Journal actually pointed to the fact that if government employment stayed at 2008 level, unemployment in the USA would be 7.1%