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Banker Bonus Anger Is Shifting to Government Workers
Commentary by Joe Mysak
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — Move over, investment bankers. The next victims of populist backlash are going to be state- and local-government workers.
As usual, it’s all about the numbers, except this time we’re not talking about dollars in a bonus check. No, this time it’s about numbers of jobs.
Businesses have fired 8.5 million people, or 7.4 percent of those on the payroll when employment peaked in December 2007. Local governments kept hiring through September 2008, and since then have fired 141,000 workers, less than 1 percent of the 14.6 million they had at the top, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In good times, few people focus on how government payroll expands, or how elected politicians raise salaries and enhance pensions and benefits. Americans like government services, and their public officials are happy to comply with their wishes.
Now the good times are over, at least for a while, and Americans find themselves with local-government payrolls that in many cases remain at record levels. They also now see unions refusing to reduce headcount, and are forced to wonder what planet the union bosses are on.
https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aPQaYEiezekQ
