While private sector hiring faltered, employment in DC soared. And getting a Federal job is a plum these days, since they earn TWICE AS MUCH as their private-sector counterparts.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm
At a time when workers' pay and benefits have stagnated, federal employees' average compensation has grown to more than double what private sector workers earn, a USA TODAY analysis finds.
Federal workers have been awarded bigger average pay and benefit increases than private employees for nine years in a row. The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade.
Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the latest available.
As you can see, our Federal government has almost completely ignored the recession, demanding sacrifice and suffering from all of us while living high on the hog themselves.
And it shouldn't be that way. A government that is responsive to the people SHOULD be cutting back... reducing salaries and work rosters. So far, the Federal government hasn't made one single effort to do that. While Congress fights over whether or not to increase spending and raise taxes, the rest of us are wondering if they live in an entirely different economy than the rest of us. Let us eat cake, I guess.
This is yet another example of how out of touch our current political leadership is with the rest of the country. Re-election considerations aside, they're really not worried that much about the recession because it hasn't really affected them. And it hasn't affected them because most of the DC economy is geared around Federal employees and elected officials.
If this is a time of sacrifice and cutting back, and it is exactly that for most of the country, then I'd like to see the Federal government pitch in with a little of it. Cut back on salary and benefits for Federal workers. Heck, fire a few here and there, you know.
The taxpayers of this nation are not an ever-full cookie jar, into which you can plunge your hand and come out with more and more goodies. The profligate ways of Washington politicians are pushing this country into bankruptcy, and are preventing any kind of economic recovery from developing. It's time this STOPPED... while we still have a strong nation to be proud of.
There's an interesting prospective to see out of this government worker side (I'm one). Each week...our director reviews open positions. We advertise and try to fill positions quickly. We have continual problems. We had a position that got twenty resumes but 18 were tossed out as having inadequate background or experience...so only two made it to the interview process. Both failed the interview. Then we were stuck... advertising the position again. We are now up to 200 days without a fill, and hoping that the new applicants somehow pass.
ReplyDeleteWe have a second position (GS13)....with three final folks from the interview process. Guy #1 said he'd take the job but wanted step 5 (we said no...he'd have to start at step 1, which amounts to a $7k lesser salary). So he refused. Then we went to guy #2, and he wanted the same thing, so we refused. So finally, #3 accepted the deal. It took around 120 days to finally reach that point.
The silly nature of government jobs is that a regular civilian company could fill the job within forty-five days. A government operation can take months and months to fill a position.