Cities Should Think Twice Before Hiring Again
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As Congress debates the expanding size of the federal government, the next generation of mayors soon to take office in New York, Boston and in other U.S. cities will inherit public sectors much smaller than what they were five years ago. The recession cut more than 500,000 local jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And unlike private-sector employment, which has been growing since early 2010, government hiring remains weak.
Mayors should make a virtue out of necessity and postpone adding more workers for the foreseeable future. Although more local hiring would push down metropolitan unemployment rates, the mayors’ greater responsibility is to stabilize budgets, which remain fragile in almost all big U.S cities.