Where are the government jobs?

• Author: Brainerd, Jackson
• Position: StateStats - Statistical data

The national unemployment rate, which lingered at 5.1 percent from the end of August 2015 through September, dropped to 5 percent in October. But a Bloomberg analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that much of the national job recovery since the Great Recession has missed the public sector. That makes this recovery a little different; traditionally, government spending and payrolls have led the way out of recessions.

Nationwide, total nonfarm payrolls hit a post-recession low of 129.6 million workers at the beginning of 2010, but have since risen 9.8 percent, to 142.3 million. The lion's share of total employment gains have been in the private sector, which has enjoyed 66 consecutive months of job growth. Since this streak began in February 2010, private payrolls have improved 12.2 percent, from a low of 107.2 million workers to a current level of 120.3 million.

Private employment gains over the last five and a half years contrast starkly with public figures. After a spike in census workers in 2010, total federal payrolls shrank by 5.1 percent between October 2010 and October 2014, bottoming out at 2.7 million workers. That's the smallest the payrolls had been in a decade. Local and state government payrolls peaked in July and August 2008, respectively, then hit eight-year lows in June and July...