Private Sector Up, Government Down

DAVID LEONHARDT

Thoughts on the economic scene.

As weak as the economy has been in recent months, the private sector has still been adding jobs at a faster rate than the adult population has been growing. Over the last 12 months, the private-sector employment has grown by 1.7 percent, while the adult population has grown about 1 percent, according to Haver, a research firm, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Thoughts on the economic scene.

Yet the percentage of adults with jobs has been falling:

How could this be? Because the government — especially state and local government — is cutting jobs: