Jobs, Government Jobs | featured news

When a reader asked us whether “Red” (Republican) states accounted for more job losses than “Blue” (Democratic) states during Obama’s presidency, we decided to investigate. We used Bureau of Labor Statistics data and the help of the incomparable Lori Williams at Tableau Software. We make no judgment about whether reductions in state and local government jobs are justified--some readers might believe state budgets are bloated--but simply want to explore what has happened in the past three years.

Recent trends hold with the Labor Department reporting a gain of 140,000 private-sector jobs last month but a loss of another 20,000 government jobs. It's a monthly ritual in the race for the White House.

Employers added 431,000 nonfarm jobs, the biggest monthly increase in a decade, but most of the reported growth was in government jobs.