February 22nd, 2009 3:02 PM
“Big Government” Isn’t Just Hyperbole
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We often hear about ‘big government’ and how it’s getting bigger. I wanted to check the data to see if it’s hyperbole or reality. Its not hyperbole. According to official government data (ironic) it turns out that government - Federal, state, local and military - has the single highest payroll of any “industry.” The table below is from the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ official income data for 2008 (as of the 3rd quarter) and lists the major industry groups by total payroll. Across all industries, the total wage disbursements were $6.5 trillion dollars.
Below is the BEA payroll breakdown. The numbers are in millions and annualized, so you can see that government is the only “business” to pay out more than $1 trillion dollars in wages in 2008.
- Farm wage and salary disbursements $20,802
- Forestry, fishing, related activities, and other $19,415
- Mining $66,841
- Utilities $47,483
- Construction $368,519
- Manufacturing $744,233
- Wholesale trade $378,038
- Retail trade $423,009
- Transportation and warehousing $198,907
- Information $220,021
- Finance and insurance $517,190
- Real estate and rental and leasing $97,229
- Professional and technical services $622,908
- Management of companies and enterprises $181,255
- Administrative and waste services $265,270
- Educational services $109,385
- Health care and social assistance $680,833
- Arts, entertainment, and recreation $67,310
- Accommodation and food services $211,175
- Other services, except public administration $201,977
- Government and government enterprises $1,122,604
Two things surprise me in these numbers:
- Government payrolls are more than twice as large as the much-maligned financial industry, and
- Manufacturing is still the second largest industry in terms of payroll.
Not surprisingly, Washington D.C. and Maryland enjoyed some of the biggest income gains last year as evidenced by the BEA’s map below:
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