The incredible shrinking American government

Another jobs report has come and gone, and yet again, we're left to wonder whether the economy might not be a tad healthier if we weren't firing government workers left and right. Over the past year, the United States has shed 169,000 public sector workers. That's more jobs than we've added in the past two months. 

Of course, those cuts haven't been equally distributed. The biggest blow has been to local governments, which have said goodbye 96,000 workers. Uncle Sam has been on his own weight loss plan too, though, slimming down by 52,000 workers.

See graphs and the rest of the story at The Atlantic.

(Image via  Andrey_Popov /Shutterstock.com)