Public Sector Employees as a Percentage of Total Employees

Public vs. total employees: Canada, U.S. and U.K. (1976-2024)

• 1976-2000: 🔽 Public employee percentage declined across all countries.
• 2000-2010: ⬆️ Slight increase in public employee percentage for all.
• 2010-2024:
  • U.S.: 🔽 Percentage fell from 17.3% in Jan. 2010 to 14.6% in Jan. 2024.
  • U.K.: 🔽 Decrease from 22.3% in March 2010 to 17.8% in June 2023.
  • Canada: ⬆️ Rose from 20.1% in Jan. 2010 to 21.5% in Jan. 2024, marking the highest percentage since Oct 1995 excluding the pandemic onset in April & May 2020.

🚨 Concerns rise as Canada's public employee percentage (including all levels of the governments) increases!

Notes:

• In the U.S., the data excludes military and farm workers. However, including them wouldn't significantly alter the percentage.
• Canada and the U.S. provided monthly data, while the U.K. offered only annual and quarterly data starting in 1992.
• Unlike the U.S., in Canada, many in the health industry are deemed public employees; removing them would lower the percentage by about 1%—a minor change.
• Government contractors are excluded from these statistics. This number is smaller for federal government in Canada vs. the federal governments in the U.S. and the U.K.. For example, in 2022, the U.S. federal government outsourced $694B in contracts, compared to Canada's federal government's $22.2B.