Nice graph showing Total Government jobs now exceed Total Private Sector Goods producing jobs. Is this the new normal? I think so...

Nice graph showing where jobs have been concentrated since 1940. 

On the vertical axis are the jobs in "thousands", which means you add 3 zeroes to the end of the number you see and read it as "10 million or 20 million" as you move up the axis.

Jobs can be divided up into 3 major categories--Private sector service-providing, Private sector good-producing, and Government sector jobs (Federal, State, and Local).


Source: The Big Picture Blog

Our march towards a service-type economy has been a long time coming. The service sector line and the goods producing sector started to diverge in the 1950's and increased at an increasing rate thereafter. 

It is also interesting to note the private goods producing line relative to the government jobs line. They converge for the first time in 2002 and as of 2008 there are more government sector jobs than there are goods producing jobs.

It is a fact that, in real terms, we are producing more manufactured goods than ever--even TODAY, factoring in the recession!! Why is this?

""The falling cost of automation, globalization, relative wages, productivity increases, consumer/worker preferences, the rise of the internet, and political forces, are just a few of the many causes of the shift to service jobs, which now make up almost 70 percent of nonfarm payrolls.""---Source HERE

Increases in productivity in manufacturing occur external to what is happening with population.  It is much more difficult to get the same productivity from government with increases in population.  I am not saying you can't get better productivity in government, but you can't expect the same gains relative to private manufacturing.  OR CAN YOU? 

What do you think??