Rasmussen released the results of a recent survey which indicated that a significant percentage of American adults believe that federal employees have it easier and earn more money than private sector workers.
The survey showed that 66% of the individuals surveyed believe private sector workers work harder than federal workers, and 56% said that they believe federal workers earn more money. Interestingly, 46% of the government employees surveyed said that they didn’t work as hard as private sector workers, however 54% said that they do not earn as much as private sector workers.
I was curious what FedSmith.com users had to say about this, so I put the same questions asked in the Rasmussen survey out to our users (the first 9 questions were taken verbatim from the Rasmussen site). I also asked a clarifying question of my own to establish each respondent’s relationship to the federal government (current employee, retired, etc).
Out of the roughly 3500 responses to the survey, the general trend in the responses indicated that of the mostly current federal employees who responded, most felt that they work harder than workers in the private sector but are paid less for doing so.
Responses showed an upbeat attitude towards the economy in the sense that most people said they felt unemployment would be lower than it is today a year from now.
And although the majority of respondents indicated that if the federal government hires more people that it helps the economy, a majority said that the government should not do anything to help if people can’t find work after an extended period of time, a seemingly contradictory position on the two questions about the government’s role in the labor market.
The full set of questions and responses are listed below. Thanks to all of our users who took the time to take the survey and share their opinions!
| Do you know anyone who is out of work and looking for a job? | |
| Yes | 71.3% |
| No | 28.7% |
| Do you know anyone who, out of frustration with the difficult job market, has given up looking for a job? | |
| Yes | 34% |
| No | 66% |
| Is the job market better than it was a year ago, worse than it was a year ago or about the same? | |
| Better | 31.9% |
| Worse | 17.3% |
| About the same | 50.9% |
| A year from today will unemployment be higher than it is today, lower than it is today or about the same as it is today? | |
| Higher than today | 20.3% |
| Lower than today | 40.9% |
| About the same as today | 38.8% |
| If people can’t find work after an extended period of time, should the federal government hire them, pay for their retraining, extend their unemployment benefits indefinitely or do nothing at all? | |
| Hire them | 6.1% |
| Pay for retraining | 32.6% |
| Extend unemployment benefits indefinitely | 8.9% |
| Do nothing | 52.5% |
| If the federal government hires more people, is that good for the economy, bad for the economy, or does it have no impact on the economy? | |
| Good for economy | 43.4% |
| Bad for economy | 36.5% |
| Has no impact on economy | 20.1% |
| Do government workers have more job security or less job security than workers in the private sector? | |
| More job security than private sector | 89.1% |
| Less job security than private sector | 10.9% |
| Who works harder, government workers or workers in the private sector? | |
| Government workers | 66.2% |
| Private sector workers | 33.8% |
| Does the average government worker earn more annually than the average private sector worker? | |
| Yes, s/he earns more annually | 17.5% |
| No, s/he earns less annually | 82.5% |
| What is your relationship to the federal government? | |
| Current federal employee | 81.1% |
| Retired federal employee | 12.4% |
| Government contractor | 1.2% |
| Other/none of the above | 5.3% |
