http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/08/news/economy/federal-worker-jobs/index.html
According to the article, 4,200 federal workers lost jobs in February, as the federal workforce continues to thin, with more job losses to come due to the automatic budget cuts. As opposed to recent gains in the private sector, a total of 33,000 federal worker jobs have been lost since January 2012 -- and that does not include jobs at the Postal Service, which is in the midst of a crisis of its own. This is kind of ironic to Dan Stohr, spokesman for the Aerospace Industries Association who said: "It's incredibly ironic that just as the private sector seems poised to take off, cutbacks in federal spending are slamming the brakes on growth,". Worst thing is with the budget cuts, it is going to get grimmer.
It is never good news if the cuts start to intrude on essential functions, as stated above, in national security. Federal worker cuts is also very destabilizing to the economy, because these jobs are usually very secure, and adds stability to local economies.
ReplyDeleteThis constant job loss in the public sector comes at a really inconvenient time for the US economy. As the article says, with the private sector seeming like its about to take off and with the stock market hitting all-time highs, it seems like something this contractionary will keep the economy from growing as fast as it potentially could. Also, with all of the federal workers unemployed, will they be able to find jobs in new sectors or will they struggle like millions of other Americans searching for jobs. Hopefully the recent upturn in the economy will be able to counteract the recent job losses with new job openings.
ReplyDeleteThe private sector was set to emerge and help our economy's recovery take off at a much faster rate. But at the same time we have to make budget cuts as the deficit is out of control. I think this is one of those instances where you can not make everyone happy so you have to pick the option that you think will turn out the best in the long run. As I learned from Alice Simon, "Sometimes you have to take a short-term loss, for a long-term gain."
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