Federal Spending and Federal Employmnet

 Philip Bump at WP:

There were about 3 million federal employees when Ronald Reagan took office; there are about 3 million today. The biggest drop occurred while Bill Clinton was president. Government employment grew more under Donald Trump than it did during Barack Obama's two terms.

(The spikes on the chart below are hiring for the decennial census.)

......Only about 2 percent of workers are now employed by the federal government.

But, again: Federal employees are not the central trigger for spending! This chart shows how spending (excluding payments on debt) was distributed in 2024. Most spending is on social programs — meaning it goes to Americans, not just to government employees

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Another cut at the data, also by Philip Bump (data are actually from 2022):