Job seekers stand in line to meet with prospective employers at a career fair in New York City (REUTERS/Mike Segar).
Blog Post
Should the United States Have 2.2 Million More Jobs?
May 3, 2013, Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney, The Hamilton Project
Following the last five recessions in U.S. history, the economy added government jobs—an average of 1.7 million, in fact—that helped spur our economic recovery. In contrast, during our recovery from the Great Recession, the economy has shed more than 500,000 government jobs. In this month's Hamilton Project employment analysis, Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney explore the trajectory of public sector employment since the Great Recession. The findings show that if the policy response to this recession had been similar to the response after other recent recessions, the economy would have about 2.2 million more jobs today.