The remarkably high job security -- merited or not -- of federal government workers has been documented extensively.
Last fall, USA Today analyzed the rates of layoffs and firings of federal employees, and the newspaper's findings were eye-opening. Here are just a few of those findings:
n In the budget year 2009-2010, none of the 1,832 workers in the Federal Communications Commission and none of the nearly 1,200 workers in the Federal Trade Commission were laid off or fired.
* Only two people were laid off from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 4,211-member workforce.
* Of the 1,714 workers at the National Labor Relations Board, only one was dismissed.
"The job security rate for all federal workers was 99.43 percent [in 2009-2010] and nearly 100 percent for those on the job more than a few years," USA Today concluded.
For comparison, the annual rate of firings alone among America's private-sector workers is about five times the rate of firings and layoffs combined for federal workers.
But extreme job security is not the only benefit that federal workers get at the expense of taxpayers. USA Today more recently took a look at federal salaries and found that in many cases they are going up a lot -- while private-sector wages have been stagnant in the weak economy.
"Newly hired federal workers are starting at much higher salaries than those who did the same jobs in the past, a lift that has elevated the salaries of scientists and custodians alike," the newspaper reported.
Among the findings:
* A young auto mechanic just starting out with the federal government earns nearly $10,000 more per year today than he would have earned five years ago. (Washington hires roughly 400 full-time mechanics per year.)
* Five years ago, a newly hired federal lawyer earned about $79,000. Today, that has risen to more than $101,000. (The federal government adds about 2,500 lawyers to its workforce each year.)
* A young mechanical engineer starting a job with the federal government today earns approximately $12,000 more than he would have earned five years ago. (Six hundred mechanical engineers are added to the federal workforce every year.)
* In 2006, 12 percent of federal workers were earning $100,000 or more per year. Today, 22 percent -- more than one in five! -- of federal workers are paid more than $100,000.
Not surprisingly, federal workers are staying put in their well-paid positions. Voluntary resignations, early retirements and ordinary retirements have all dropped massively the past few years. And federal employees are getting additional help from the president in keeping their jobs.
"Under the Obama administration, layoffs from reorganizations have dropped by two-thirds to fewer than 300 a year in the 2.1 million person workforce," USA Today noted. In fact, "workers are 13 times more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off from the federal government."
We don't wish to see the rug pulled out from under any worker, government or private sector. But the extraordinarily high job security and rising wages enjoyed by federal workers -- especially in this time of high private-sector unemployment and an enormous national debt -- are simply not justified.
Government is too big, not too small. We shouldn't be making it bigger still.