Disappearing public sector jobs indicate growing privatization

It’s not easy to measure the extent of privatization in our economy. One indicator of the change in the public and private share of the economy is the labour force.

Since the 1970s the public sector has accounted for about one-quarter of the total labour force. However, between 1992 and 1998 the public sector’s proportion shrank drastically, while the private sector’s grew.

This significant privatization of the workforce occurred over the past seven years, as the federal government and the provinces tightened public spending. Public sector employment is not keeping pace with the service needs of a growing population.

In 1999, for the first time in many years, public sector employment started to increase again — although only at half of the rate that private sector jobs grew. This reflects a growth in employment overall, with half that growth occurring in the public sector. It also indicates that the cuts to some public services were so deep, governments have had to rehire public employees such as health care workers to quell public outrage over inadequately staffed, overcrowded hospitals.