This chart makes a nice follow-up to Hunter's post about how the the real jobs growth in Texas came from the public sector:
Data from St. Louis Federal Reserve
(
Texas,
U.S., December 2007 to June 2011)
Keep in mind, the figure of the U.S. includes the government jobs created in Texas, so outside of Texas, government employment fell by 418,400. So while Texas was adding more than 100,000 government jobs, the country was losing over 400,000—a net difference of
more than half a million. And with these numbers, you won't be shocked to learn that 15.2% of the Texas workforce is employed by the government compared to the national average of 14.4%. Mind you, I'm not arguing that Texas is doing anything wrong, here. But I am saying that when Rick Perry says government is the enemy, he's a big ol' hypocrite.