--- title: Why the Good Jobs Report Isn't Even Better description: These four charts show why today's jobs report could have been that much better— if only public-sector employment would ever bounce back. authors: - name: Taylor Tepper url: https://money.com/author/taylor-tepper-3/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 168 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/TaylorTepper former_staff: true published: '2014-07-03T15:52:01.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T03:57:21.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Economy - Employment - federal government - government workers - Jobs - local government - Stimulus - Teachers - The Economy - White House word_count: 263 canonical: https://money.com/why-the-good-jobs-numbers-arent-great/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![140702_JR_GOVERN_1](https://img.money.com/2014/07/140702_jr_govern_1.jpg?crop=0px%2C418px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85) *Bridge Building in the New Deal Era* Thursday's jobs report, which showed that the nation's unemployment rate fell to 6.1%, was viewed in a very [positive](https://time.com/2953438/jobs-report-unemployment-rate-economy/) light. Not only did more Americans gain employment than expected in June, but wages perked up as well. The White House, in fact, [noted](http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/07/03/employment-situation-june) that the private sector has added 9.7 million jobs over 52 straight months of job growth. The key word there is *private*. Of the 288,000 jobs added in June, 262,000 were [private sector](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm) positions. That means only 26,000 came from Federal, state and local governments. Which means if you're a teacher or a Leslie Knope-wannabe, finding work remains less than easy. In fact, this chart shows how the public sector outlook has deteriorated since the end of the recession in June 2009: ![US Government Payrolls Chart](http://media.ycharts.com/charts/598f9dfe2a5b734a3c4239909f490e60.png) [US Government Payrolls](http://ycharts.com/indicators/us_government_employees) data by [YCharts](http://ycharts.com) Yet in the aftermath of past recessions, such as the one that ended in 2001, local, state and federal jobs have traditionally been the first to rebound: ![US Government Payrolls Chart](http://media.ycharts.com/charts/df05e34bbeb95ffab419e64f7fafd0d3.png) [US Government Payrolls](http://ycharts.com/indicators/us_government_employees) data by [YCharts](http://ycharts.com) Federal employment in particular continues to be weak... ![](https://img.money.com/2014/07/federalemployment1.png) ...The same goes for teaching jobs. ![teachers](https://img.money.com/2014/07/teachers1.png) Why have teachers had such a rough go of it? Well, [according](http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=4011) to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, states are simply spending less on education: > At least 35 states are providing less funding per student for the 2013-14 school year than they did before the recession hit. Fourteen of these states have cut per-student funding by more than 10 percent. But states are not alone. Ever since the effects of the stimulus have worn off, federal government spending has also hit a wall. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/why-the-good-jobs-numbers-arent-great/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Economy", "item": "https://money.com/economy/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Why the Good Jobs Report Isn't Even Better" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/why-the-good-jobs-numbers-arent-great/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/why-the-good-jobs-numbers-arent-great/", "name": "Why the Good Jobs Report Isn't Even Better", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2014-07-03T15:52:01.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/why-the-good-jobs-numbers-arent-great/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/why-the-good-jobs-numbers-arent-great/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T03:57:21.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Why the Good Jobs Report Isn't Even Better", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/07/140702_jr_govern_1.jpg?crop=0px%2C418px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "140702_JR_GOVERN_1" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://media.ycharts.com/charts/598f9dfe2a5b734a3c4239909f490e60.png", "width": "", "height": "" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://media.ycharts.com/charts/df05e34bbeb95ffab419e64f7fafd0d3.png", "width": "", "height": "" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/07/federalemployment1.png", "width": 800, "height": 285 }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/07/teachers1.png", "width": 800, "height": 294 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Taylor Tepper", "url": "https://money.com/author/taylor-tepper-3/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/taylor-tepper-3/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_tepper1.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "ttepper@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/TaylorTepper" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2014-07-03T15:52:01.000Z", "description": "These four charts show why today's jobs report could have been that much better— if only public-sector employment would ever bounce back.", "abstract": "These four charts show why today's jobs report could have been that much better— if only public-sector employment would ever bounce back.", "@id": "https://money.com/why-the-good-jobs-numbers-arent-great/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T03:57:21.000Z", "wordCount": 263, "keywords": [ "Economy", "Employment", "federal government", "government workers", "Jobs", "local government", "Stimulus", "Teachers", "The Economy", "White House" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy" ] } ] } ] } ```