What is rarely discussed is that a significant chunk of our unemployment problem is due to state and local government layoffs–something I predicted four years ago (this stuff just isn’t that hard to figure out). Here are some data for you:

What you’ll notice is that, even as private sector jobs increase, the increase in total jobs–’gummint jobs’ plus private sector–is lower. Put another way, since 2008, we have lost 680,000 public sector jobs. Worse, this unlike other recessions where public sector jobs are usually added, meaning we are, in total, about 1.4 million to 1.9 million jobs short, which would lower unemployment directly to about 7.0% – 7.3%. Mind you, I said directly, as that estimate doesn’t take into account spending by those employees.

By the way, this can only be intentional, since the problem and the solution were so obvious.

Another brilliant success chalked up to austerioeroticism.