Job growth not visible in federal budget, report says

The federal government is open for contractors—just look at the head count.

The ranks of civil service employees declined by almost 50,000 between 1999 and 2002. During that period, more than 700,000 jobs were contracted out, and another 330,000 more jobs were generated by grants.

By 2002, an estimated 5.2 million contractors and nearly 2.7 million grantees were working for the federal government,  according to “Fact Sheet on the New True Size of Government.”

“The true size of government has grown by 1.1 million jobs since 1999,” writes Paul C. Light of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Public Service, which released the report in September.

According to the report, military personnel and postal employment inched up during the period but almost all of the growth occurred in contract and grant-generated jobs.

“Although some may dispute the exact numbers of contract and grant-generated jobs, the trend lines strongly suggest that government is now growing, almost entirely in off-budget jobs that are invisible to the American public in federal budget and head-count documents,” Light says.

“Clearly, contractors are taking over public programs paid for with tax dollars—and it is not by accident,” says Steve Porter, director of the AFT Public Employees department, noting that “privatization of public services is a political issue, and not an issue of practicality, cost-effectiveness and quality.”

Light’s article is posted at www.brookings.edu/gs/cps/light20030905.htm.

In related job news, the U.S. Department of Labor has reported a net loss of 93,000 nonfarm jobs in August. Seasonally adjusted, preliminary figures show that government job cuts totaled 26,000 in August, accounting for nearly 28 percent of the national job loss.

Particularly hard hit was local government, which shed 20,000 jobs, including a cut of 8,000 local education jobs.