Are Government Jobs Recession Proof?

Recently, a number of Illinois state government employees received pay raises in the midst of an economic recession and ongoing budget crisis. Was this an isolated incident? No, it’s a trend. The chart above was constructed using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and it shows the compensation of public and private employees indexed against the first...

Recently, a number of Illinois state government employees received pay raises in the midst of an economic recession and ongoing budget crisis. Was this an isolated incident? No, it’s a trend.

The chart above was constructed using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and it shows the compensation of public and private employees indexed against the first quarter of 2001.

We can see that state and local government employees enjoyed a greater improvement in compensation levels than private sector employees since the base period.

• Private compensation has increased 16.74 percent since the first quarter of 2001, compared to 43.75 percent for public employees.
• This means that if a public sector worker and a private sector worker in Illinois made the same amount in 2001, the public sector worker would make 23.13 percent more today than the private sector employee  (all other things being equal).
• While public sector compensation did decrease between 2003 and 2005, it never dipped enough to match private sector levels.
• Compensation for private employees peaked in fourth quarter of 2007 and is just starting to recover, meanwhile, public employee compensation has continually increased during the Great Recession.

While people in the private sector are struggling to find jobs and feed their families, public servants are getting raises. No wonder taxpayers are frustrated. Most Americans are unwilling pay higher taxes to avoid public sector layoffs, let alone give them a pay boost.