Employment in the public sector: two recessions' impact on jobs

Monthly Labor Review, Oct, 2004 by Julie Hatch

Notes

(1) Data on employment used in this article are from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, which surveys 160,000 nonfarm businesses representing about 400,000 establishments monthly. For more information on the program's concepts and methodology, see BLS Handbook o/Methods (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1997). CES data are available on the Internet at http:/www.bls.govlces/. Data used in this article are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise noted.

(2) For information on recessions, recoveries, the National Bureau of Economic Research Business Cycle Dating Committee, and related topics, see http://www.nber.org/cycles/main.html.> (3) Gross domestic product grew 2.6 percent in the second quarter of 1991 and increased every quarter until the third quarter of 2000. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis produces estimates of gross domestic product; for more information, visit the agency's website at http:www.bea.gov/bea/dn/home/ gdp.htm.

(4) Intermittent decennial census workers are excluded from the analysis because their large, infrequent buildup and subsequent layoff skews the underlying employment trend. For more information about the 2000 Decennial Census and its impact on CES employment, see Laura Kelter, "Counting the counters: effects of Census 2000 on employment," Monthly Labor Review, February 2000, pp. 24-29; on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2000/02/art2full.pdf.> (5) For more information on the Department of Homeland Security, see www.dhs.gov.

(6) For more information on the Transportation Security Administration, see www.tsa.gov.

(7) Department of Defense operations that operate under non-appropriated funding are excluded from the agency's job numbers, but are included in the "other Federal Government" category. Non-appropriated funds are funds generated by Department of Defense military and civilian personnel and their dependents and are used to augment funds appropriated by the Congress "to provide a comprehensive, morale-building welfare, religious, educational, and recreational program designed to improve the well-being of military and civilian personnel and their dependents" (quote cited on the Internet at http://usmilitary.about.com/library/glossary/n/ blglossary.htm).

(8) The National Partnership for Reinventing Government, formerly the Government Performance and Results Act, focused on performance and funding in the Federal Government. According to one source, "This effort has streamlined the Government work force, eliminated obsolete programs and agencies, empowered its employees to cut red tape, and used partnerships to get results" (FY2002 Economic Outlook, Highlights from FY 1994 to FY 2001, FY 2002 Baseline Projects, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President of the United States, January 2001), available on the Internet at http://w3.access.gpo.gov/ushudget/.> (9) The Federal Government's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 31. (See "History of the U.S. Postal Service"; on the Internet at http://www.usps.com/history/his3_5.htm#CHANGE.