State Unemployment Data Confuses Conservatives: How Can There Be Lower Jobs in Government?

Something is Not Right Here

One of the enduring myths of Conservative economics is that government has not and will not and can not create a single job. In fact, this is a core belief of the Rick Perry for President campaign.

So how does one explain the following report on the unemployment rates in the various states.

The majority of states recorded increases in their unemployment rates in August with the job market stuck in neutral. . .Compared with July, Illinois and Pennsylvania saw the biggest one-month increases in their unemployment rates, rising 0.4 percentage point each to 9.9% and 8.2%, respectively. Both states were hit by cutbacks in government jobs.

Washington, D.C.’s rate of 11.1% was impacted by sharp reductions in government jobs.



Who Are These People?



In Texas the great job creator Rick Perry saw this happen

The Texas Workforce Commission reports that Texas added 8,100 private sector jobs in August but lost 9,400 government jobs. Over the past 12 months, Texas has added 253,200 jobs but has lost 19,000 government jobs.

Mr. Perry has been unable to explain so far how the state could lose 19,000 government jobs when there are no government jobs.

An unnamed Conservative spokesman explained this inexplicable contradiction about government not creating a single job, yet government jobs are down by saying that “this just shows how terrible liberal economic policy is.  There are no jobs created by government, but government can fire people from government jobs creating even more unemployment”.  When questioned as to the logic of this statement the spokesman defended it by saying it made just as much sense as the other parts of the Conservative economic ideology.