Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently stated that “It’s very clear that private sector jobs have been doing just fine, it’s the public sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers….” While it is true that the private sector has added 1.4 million jobs and the public sector has lost 572,000 jobs since the recession officially ended in June 2009, that statement fails to look at where the two sectors stand in comparison to when the recession started in December 2007.

Since December 2007, public sector employment has declined by 392,000 jobs (1.75%). Private sector employment has declined by 6.3 million (5.41%). In other words, for every public sector job that disappeared since the beginning of the recession, 16 private sector jobs have vanished. On a percentage basis, the private sector losses have been three times greater than public sector job losses.

If you examine a longer time horizon, the private sector has 2.29 million fewer jobs than in January 2001 – a loss of 2.1%. The public sector added 1.15 million jobs over the same time period – a gain of 5.5%.