,
8 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
First, public-sector employment in Alberta indeed rose in recent years. During the former governments's tenure in office, public-sector employment rose nearly 50k. But, importantly, this includes all levels (feds, crown corp, muni, etc.). 
Second, that data itself is puzzling and inconsistent with other measures of public employment. A great piece on this is from @CBCFletch at cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…
Another data source allows us to dig deeper into the numbers to see *where* government employment has increased. www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.… In Alberta, employment is up almost exclusively in health and education. (Note: up by less than 40k.) This is important context.
The Alberta Budget also reports on government FTEs. Here's from Prentice's budget compared to the latest forecast. Up only 10k FTEs. (The prior payroll data is just headcount, so they won't match.)
It's also worth comparing Alberta with other provinces. Here's total public employment *per capita* in 2018. BC and Ontario have the lowest, Alberta third lowest. Health is notably higher here (as is health spending per person generally).
Finally, what about public sector compensation as a share of total labour compensation in the economy? This is (perhaps) a relevant measure to get at the 'burden' of taxes levied on non-govt employment to fund govt employment. Alberta has the smallest share of all provinces.
... I think that's all I got. TL;DR: AB govt employment didn't rise by 40k, and the increases that did occur were almost entirely health and education. Fair enough to prefer lower govt employment, but exaggerated/misleading claims is not the best way to move forward. /fin
