Productivity in Agriculture, Manufacturing and Government

In June economist Mark Perry did a post on his blog wondering why the decline in agricultural jobs had not been given the same notice that the decline in manufacturing jobs has been given in the media.   It is a good question - but part of the point of the post was that both sectors have experienced significant increases in productivity over the the last several decades.   What would the chart on public employees look like?

At the federal level we know that we employ just under 2 million employees including military.   According to the Census California employs about 350,000 people.   One of the frequent complaints about the state is that compared to other states or countries we do not have "enough" public employees based on per capita comparisons; when population grows the number of public employees should grow proportionally.   But why?  Shouldn't we expect government to experience the same kinds of productivity gains that agriculture and manufacturing have experienced?

A couple of other considerations.   During the early part of this year a number of writers published data showing that public employees were paid more generously than their private sector counterparts based on salary and benefits - the unfunded liabilities in public pensions were just one part of that puzzle.  At the same time scholarly articles on the economics of bureaucracies suggest that in downturns bureaucracies actually decrease productivity by reducing their commitment to the very services they are hired to provide. 

The suggestion that government should grow at the same pace as population seems to be one of those suppositions that disappears when one thinks a bit about the logic.