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FIRST READING: One in four Canadian employees now works for government

Share of public employment reaching levels of unsustainability last hit before 1990s debt crisis

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FIRST READING: One in four Canadian employees now works for government Back to video

With Canada continuing to hire government workers well out of proportion to job growth in the private sector, the country is now approaching conditions last seen in the 1990s as we neared the brink of a sovereign debt collapse.

The most recent labour force numbers published by Statistics Canada show that 4.6 million Canadians now work in the public sector, as compared to 13.8 million working in the private sector, and 2.7 million who are self-employed.

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This means that public-sector workers – those working for government or a government-funded sector such as health care – now represent one quarter of all Canadians working as employees, and 21.8 per cent of all workers generally.

As first noted by economist Charles Lamman........

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