Many discuss the size of big government, but most do not realize that the local governments are much larger than the federal government. During the past year, state and local employment has been reduced, mostly through not filling vacancies, by 258,000, or 1.3%, to 19.2 million workers, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Compensation for government workers accounts for half of the $2 trillion spent annually by governments. For workers who remain, compensation increased 2.5% compared with 0.8% for private-sector workers for the year ended June 30, 2010.
The federal workforce, meanwhile, grew 3.4% to 2.2 million during the past year and promises to keep growing. The worst part of having this many federal and state workers, is that when they retire, we get to pay for them for the rest of their (and our) lives.