{"id":266305,"date":"2024-12-09T23:24:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T23:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/09\/disingenuousnous-watch-econbrowser\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:11","slug":"disingenuousnous-watch-econbrowser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/09\/disingenuousnous-watch-econbrowser\/","title":{"rendered":"Disingenuousnous Watch | Econbrowser"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EJ Antoni\/Heritage<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n

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Another month, another record high for the number of gov\u2019t employees<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Well, yes. Of course, population is also at a record high. So too is nominal GDP. What to do\u2026what to do\u2026 maybe normalize? Maybe choose a longer sample period?<\/p>\n

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Figure 1:<\/strong> Government employees, 000\u2019s (blue, left scale), and government employees as a ratio of population (tan, right scale), both s.a. NBER defined peak-to-trough recession dates shaded gray. Source: BLS, BEA via FRED, NBER.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

That being said, I am thankful the EJ Antoni\/Heritage has stopped using the CPS measure of government employment (which he did here<\/a>). An inspection of the CES and CPS counterparts highlights the fact that the CPS measure is unreliable at high frequencies.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2:<\/strong> Government employees from CES (blue), from CPS (red), both s.a. S NBER defined peak-to-trough recession dates shaded gray. Source: BLS, NBER.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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