[dd74]

There could be many reasons govt, municipal, state employment is down. Beyond budget cutbacks, for one, working for The Man just isn't sexy. When I was a kid, everyone wanted to be a lawyer, doctor or work in "the industry." So, maybe what we're now seeing are the results of the last twenty or so years of people going for sexy jobs rather than boring service jobs.

Also, in L.A., there's huge outsourcing for situations such as street repair or building of roads. It used to be The City of L.A. did all that themselves, IIRC.

Here's what I think: in the future in the U.S., service-oriented jobs will be the jobs to get. Sure, the initial pay may not be great, but the benefits in some cases more than make up for the pay. Maybe these are the new sexy jobs.