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The Future of the Government Job Market Is Uncertain

What does the job crystal ball say?

See this jobs story, Goldman Says Almost a Quarter of Temporary Layoffs in U.S. to Be Permanent.

In the article there is this item:

Getting Pessimistic

"However, “other patterns suggest that rehiring prospects for temporarily laid-off workers started to deteriorate in July,” Briggs wrote. Goldman Sachs now anticipates that almost a quarter of the temporary layoffs will become permanent. Some 2 million of those individuals could remain unemployed well into 2021."

Without a bailout package forthcoming from the United States Senate for cities and states, I would expect layoffs to be coming soon, with likely a number underway at present. The federal workforce is around 2.1M people. I suspect that states and all local governments at least equal that number, so let's guess a total of 4 million government workers. Take 10 percent of those and lay them off, and you've added 400K more people to the list of those unemployed. 

All of the above is certainly just conjecture, but ... Goldman doesn't seem to have an all-knowing crystal ball either. 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.