Also re: federal jobs:

Back in 2003-2005, when I knew I was going to leave California & thus change jobs, I applied for several civilian positions with DoD and so kept regular track of the USAJOBS website. They had a “# of jobs available” statistic on their homepage. During those two years it fluctuated regularly between 12,000 and 16,000.

Although I am no longer job hunting, I still check in on the USAJOBS website for kits and shicks periodically.

By the end of GWB’s second term (early- mid-2008) the counter had reached 18,000+ jobs.

As soon as Obama took office it shot up to 25,000+. By late last year it was 36,000+.

I just tonight checked back in and found that they no longer have the counter on the homepage, or indeed on any other page that I could readily find. I’m pretty sure that’s NOT because the federal workforce is shrinking.