Viewing offline content

Limited functionality available

Dismiss
Deloitte Middle East
  • Services

    What's New

    • Deloitte175

      Join us for a celebration of 175 years of making an impact that matters.

    • Building the Resilient Organization

      2021 Deloitte Global resilience report

    • 2020 Global Gender Impact Report

      A collection of Butterfly Effect stories highlighting how our Deloitte professionals are positively impacting the lives of women and girls around the world

    • Audit & Assurance

      • Assurance
    • Consulting

      • Strategy, Analytics and M&A
      • Customer and Marketing
      • Business Operations
      • Human Capital
      • Enterprise Technology & Performance
    • Financial Advisory

      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Forensic
      • Real Estate
      • Turnaround & Restructuring
    • Risk Advisory

      • Strategic & Reputation Risk
      • Regulatory Risk
      • Financial Risk
      • Operational Risk
      • Cyber Risk
    • Tax

      • Global Business Tax Services
      • Indirect Tax
      • Global Employer Services
    • Deloitte Private

      • Family Enterprise
    • Legal

    • Sustainability

  • Industries

    What's New

    • Deloitte perspectives

      Leadership perspectives from across the globe.

    • Deloitte Insights App

      Our thought leadership and Dow Jones news, now at your fingertips

    • Future of Mobility

      Learn how this new reality is coming together and what it will mean for you and your industry.

    • Consumer

      • Automotive
      • Consumer Products
      • Retail, Wholesale & Distribution
      • Transportation, Hospitality & Services
    • Energy, Resources & Industrials

      • Industrial Products & Construction
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil, Gas & Chemicals
      • Power, Utilities & Renewables
    • Financial Services

      • Banking & Capital Markets
      • Insurance
      • Investment Management
      • Real Estate
    • Government & Public Services

      • Civil Government
      • Defense, Security & Justice
      • Health & Social Care
      • Transport
    • Life Sciences & Health Care

      • Health Care
      • Life Sciences
    • MENA Sovereign Wealth Funds

    • Technology, Media & Telecommunications

      • Technology
      • Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment
  • Insights

    Deloitte Insights

    What's New

    • Deloitte Insights Magazine

      Explore the latest issue now

    • Deloitte Insights app

      Go straight to smart with daily updates on your mobile device

    • Weekly economic update

      See what's happening this week and the impact on your business

    • Strategy

      • Business Strategy & Growth
      • Digital Transformation
      • Governance & Board
      • Innovation
      • Marketing & Sales
      • Private Enterprise
    • Economy & Society

      • Economy
      • Environmental, Social, & Governance
      • Health Equity
      • Trust
      • Mobility
    • Organization

      • Operations
      • Finance & Tax
      • Risk & Regulation
      • Supply Chain
      • Smart Manufacturing
    • People

      • Leadership
      • Talent & Work
      • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Technology

      • Data & Analytics
      • Emerging Technologies
      • Technology Management
    • Industries

      • Consumer
      • Energy, Resources, & Industrials
      • Financial Services
      • Government & Public Services
      • Life Sciences & Health Care
      • Technology, Media, & Telecommunications
    • Spotlight

      • Deloitte Insights Magazine
      • Press Room Podcasts
      • Weekly Economic Update
      • COVID-19
      • Resilience
      • Top 10 reading guide
  • Careers

    What's New

    • Millennial Survey 2022

      Gen Zs and millennials are striving for balance and advocating for change.

    • Candidate Profile

      After applying for a job in this country, you can access/update your candidate profile at any time.

    • Job Search

    • Students

    • Experienced Hires

    • Executives

    • Life at Deloitte

    • Alumni

    • Diversity and Inclusion

  • XE-EN Location: XE-English  
  • Contact us
  • XE-EN Location: XE-English  
  • Contact us
    • Dashboard
    • Saved items
    • Content feed
    • Profile/Interests
    • Account settings

Welcome back

Still not a member? Join My Deloitte

Looking for convergence: How is the government workforce similar to the private sector?

by Akrur Barua, Peter Viechnicki
  • Save for later
  • Share
    • Share on Facebook
    • Share on Twitter
    • Share on Linkedin
    • Share by email
Deloitte Insights
  • Strategy
    Strategy
    Strategy
    • Business Strategy & Growth
    • Digital Transformation
    • Governance & Board
    • Innovation
    • Marketing & Sales
    • Private Enterprise
  • Economy & Society
    Economy & Society
    Economy & Society
    • Economy
    • Environmental, Social, & Governance
    • Health Equity
    • Trust
    • Mobility
  • Organization
    Organization
    Organization
    • Operations
    • Finance & Tax
    • Risk & Regulation
    • Supply Chain
    • Smart Manufacturing
  • People
    People
    People
    • Leadership
    • Talent & Work
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
  • Technology
    Technology
    Technology
    • Data & Analytics
    • Emerging Technologies
    • Technology Management
  • Industries
    Industries
    Industries
    • Consumer
    • Energy, Resources, & Industrials
    • Financial Services
    • Government & Public Services
    • Life Sciences & Health Care
    • Tech, Media, & Telecom
  • Spotlight
    Spotlight
    Spotlight
    • Deloitte Insights Magazine
    • Press Room Podcasts
    • Weekly Economic Update
    • COVID-19
    • Resilience
    • Top 10 reading guide
    • XE-EN Location: XE-English  
    • Contact us
      • Dashboard
      • Saved items
      • Content feed
      • Profile/Interests
      • Account settings
    26 April 2017

    Looking for convergence: How is the government workforce similar to the private sector? Behind the Numbers, April 2017

    26 April 2017
    • Akrur Barua India
    • Peter Viechnicki United States
    • Save for later
    • Share
      • Share on Facebook
      • Share on Twitter
      • Share on Linkedin
      • Share by email
    • Introduction
    • On what aspects do the public and private sector differ?
    • Different priorities can mean varying prominence of key occupations
    • Point of convergence: Office and administrative support occupations
    • Point of convergence: Technology
    • Where to start?

    Government and the private sector can differ in their priorities. There are, however, areas of convergence where government can adopt learnings from the private sector. An analysis of both workforces helps us identify two such areas.

    Introduction

    Discussions about improving government often lead to comparisons with the private sector.1 Such comparisons, especially using measures of efficiency and technology adoption, sometimes appear to favor the private sector.2 Priorities can differ, however, between government and the private sector. And many government workers are in different occupations than workers in the private sector. So, what are the areas where government can learn from the private sector to be more efficient and tech-savvy?

    Our analysis of the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) data on who is working in what jobs and in which sectors shows that while there are key differences between workforces in government and business, there are areas of strong similarity as well (see sidebar “Education looms large, but is not reflected in OES government data”). Occupations such as office and administrative support, for example, make up large shares of both government and private sector workforces. In areas such as technology, the focus of both government and the private sector is changing—although in varying degrees. These points of convergence could be prime opportunity areas where government may consider emulating private sector practices.

    Growth rate and business cycle timing of government employment differs from the private sector

    Overall, government employment has displayed a different growth pattern from private sector employment since at least 2005.3 Private sector employment grew during this period, but experienced sharp drops during and in the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, before recovering steadily. In contrast, government employment was much slower to respond to the downturn of 2008–2009 (figure 1).4 Traditionally, government employment does not respond as much to business cycles. In this case, government employment continued to grow through most of 2009, not beginning to drop until 2010 as the ripple effects of the recession began to be felt in state and local governments.5

    Government employment is less tied to business cycles

    Different priorities can mean varying prominence of key occupations

    The government workforce can differ also in composition from the private sector. Certain classes of occupation are much more prominent in government than in business, while others show the opposite pattern. Protective services, for example, accounted for 19.9 percent of the government workforce in 2016 compared to a mere 1.1 percent share in the private sector workforce. Production and sales occupations, by contrast, have a much lower share in the government workforce than the private sector (figure 2). This is again commonly a reflection of different priorities—the government has less need of sales occupations and engages in only very modest amounts of goods production.

    Other differences, however, can be less easy to explain. For example, the higher share of business and financial operations in the government workforce (10.6 percent in 2016) than the private sector (4.8 percent) may initially appear unclear. However, there is often a difference in the types of business and financial operations jobs found in the public sector. Business operations; management analysts; claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators; and budget analysts all have a higher share in the government workforce than in the private sector. This may be due to more extensive oversight and control in government than in the private sector. In contrast, the private sector has a much larger share in occupations such as personal financial advisors; financial analysts; credit analysts; loan officers; insurance underwriters; and tax preparers. This is likely not surprising given that banking and insurance are almost exclusively carried out in the private sector.6

    Shares of key occupations in the government and the private sector

    Education looms large, but is not reflected in OES government data

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides several measures of employment. The measure we are using here comes from the OES survey. We base our discussion on OES data because it is designed to help understand the occupational structure of the US economy. However, the OES data place educational occupations separately from those associated with federal, state, and local government.

    In fact, more than half of state and local government workers in the United States work in educational establishments. That’s according to another measure of employment, the Current Employment Survey (CES)—sometimes known as the “payroll” survey.7 According to payroll data, total employment in education for state government was 2.4 million and 7.9 million for local government in 2016 (figure 3). Since most government employment in the United States is at the state and local level, government education payrolls amount to almost half of total US government employment.

    Since government is the largest (by far) employer of workers in educational occupations, comparisons for these occupations between government and the private sector could be misleading. By removing this component, the OES data makes the workforce in the private sector more comparable to government workforce for our analysis.

    Education dominates state and local government non-farm payrolls

    Office and administrative support occupations are comparable across public and private sectors

    A function where government and the private sector show similar shares and trends in workforce is office and administrative support. In 2016, for example, office and administrative support had a 16.9 percent share in government employment and a 15.6 percent share of the private sector workforce (figure 2). However, despite this high share, the prominence of office and administrative support occupations has been declining over the years in both workforces (figure 4). A likely reason for this is the advent of technology, which has reduced some of the office and administrative-related workload. This is likely not difficult to comprehend—just look at the changes in office-related occupations over the years due to emails, word processing, statistical packages, and design software. Automation will likely only add to this trend in future.

    What figure 4 also tells us is that over 2005–2016, employment in office and administrative-related occupations has fallen at a faster pace in government—at an average annual rate of 1.0 percent compared with a 0.3 percent decline in the private sector during that period. We suspect the explanation for this is that government has been slower off the blocks in introducing technology in different functions and therefore may be trying to catch up with the private sector. Likely as a result of this and a higher base to start with, the decline in the office and administrative support workforce has been faster for the government.

    The fortunes of administrative and office-related occupations have declined in recent years

    Technology is the second area where government can emulate private sector practices

    As technology and process improvements have helped contribute to lower need for administrative personnel, there has been complementary growth in demand for information technology workers. While the share of tech workers is still low in both sectors, it is rising (figure 5). In government, the share of computer and mathematical science occupations in the workforce grew from 2.2 percent to 2.6 percent between 2005 and 2016. During the same period, the occupation’s share in private sector employment grew from 2.3 percent to 3.0 percent. These numbers show that tech jobs are growing faster in the private sector—at an average annual rate of 3.3 percent during 2005–2016 compared to only 1.9 percent in government over the same period. However, these numbers do not include contractors, who may be a larger part of the tech workforce in government.

    The share of computer and mathematical science occupations has been growing

    Trends in median wages also help support the notion that government lags somewhat behind in the race for tech-related talent. In 2005, the median wage for computer and mathematical occupations was the third-highest among all occupations within government; by 2016, that had fallen to fourth place. Growth in median wages has been much slower within government for computer and mathematical science occupations compared to other occupations (figure 6)—which is surprising given that many governments have IT employee exemptions from salary restrictions. Figure 6 also shows us that the median wage in the occupation has grown at a slightly slower pace for government, on average, than for the whole economy. This is in contrast to some of the other occupations in government, shown in the figure, where wages have increased faster.

    Median wages grew faster for non-tech occupations in government during 2005–2016

    Government can start by focusing on back-office and technology occupations

    Although there are differences in what government and private sector employees do, both have a substantial number of employees in administrative and tech jobs. Those are the areas in which government will be most likely to adopt best practices from the private sector. Also, as technology rises in prominence and the fortunes of administrative support occupations decline, it would likely serve government well to prepare more for a future where the share of artificial intelligence (AI) in the economy is expected to increase. Early planning and implementation within government may help pave the way for requisite education, employment, re-skilling, and wage policies essential to deal with an increasingly AI-driven future.

    Workforce analytics can help refine our understanding of those organizational components where private sector ideas will be most beneficial to government efficiency. Please see our companion pieces AI-augmented government: Using cognitive technologies to redesign public sector work and How much time and money can AI save government?: Cognitive technologies could free up hundreds of millions of public sector worker hours for a deeper look at how technology is transforming government work.

    Credits

    Written By: Akrur Barua, Peter Viechnicki

    Cover image by: Lucio Schiavon

    Acknowledgements

    The authors would like to thank William Eggers, executive director, Center for Government Insights, and Daniel Bachman, senior US economist, for their contributions to this report.

    Endnotes
      1. A summary of the ebbs and flows of debates on government efficiency can be found in Hindy Schachter, “Does Frederick Taylor’s ghost still haunt the halls of government? A look at the concept of governmental efficiency in our time,” Public Administration Review 67, no. 5 (September 2007): pp. 800–810. View in article

      2. Daniel Castro, Joshua New, and Alan McQuinn, “How is the federal government using the Internet of Things,” Center for Data Innovation, July 25, 2016, http://www2.datainnovation.org/2016-federal-iot.pdf; Teresa Curristine, Zsuzsanna Lonti, and Isabelle Joumard, “Improving public sector efficiency: Challenges and opportunities,” OECD Journal on Budgeting, 2007, https://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/43412680.pdf. View in article

      3. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics, sourced March 2017 through Haver Analytics; all numbers in this article, unless stated otherwise, have been taken from OES survey data. View in article

      4. Ibid. View in article

      5. Ibid. View in article

      6. For the same reason, accountants and auditors also likely have a larger share in the private sector workforce, though there are significant numbers in the government workforce as well. View in article

      7. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Current employment survey,” March 2017, https://www.bls.gov/ces/home.htm. View in article

    Show moreShow less

    Topics in this article

    Behind the Numbers , , Government , Talent , Artificial intelligence (AI)

    Center for Government Insights

    View
    Download Subscribe

    Related

    img Trending

    Interactive 3 days ago

    Akrur Barua

    Akrur Barua

    Manager | Deloitte Services India Pvt. Ltd.

    Akrur Barua is an economist with the Research & Insights team. As a regular contributor to several Deloitte Insights publications, he often writes on emerging economies and macroeconomic trends that have global implications like monetary policy, real estate cycles, household leverage, and trade. He also studies the US economy, especially demographics, labor market, and consumers.

    • abarua@deloitte.com
    • +1 678 299 9766
    Peter Viechnicki

    Peter Viechnicki

    Manager | Deloitte Services LP

    Peter is a strategic analysis manager and data scientist with the Deloitte Center for Government Insights, where he focuses on developing innovative public sector research using geospatial and natural language processing techniques.

    • pviechnicki@deloitte.com
    • +1 571 858 1862

    Share article highlights

    See something interesting? Simply select text and choose how to share it:

    Email a customized link that shows your highlighted text.
    Copy a customized link that shows your highlighted text.
    Copy your highlighted text.

    Looking for convergence: How is the government workforce similar to the private sector? has been saved

    Looking for convergence: How is the government workforce similar to the private sector? has been removed

    An Article Titled Looking for convergence: How is the government workforce similar to the private sector? already exists in Saved items

     
    Forgot password

    To stay logged in, change your functional cookie settings.

    OR

    Social login not available on Microsoft Edge browser at this time.

    Connect Accounts

    Connect your social accounts

    This is the first time you have logged in with a social network.

    You have previously logged in with a different account. To link your accounts, please re-authenticate.

    Log in with an existing social network:

    To connect with your existing account, please enter your password:

    OR

    Log in with an existing site account:

    To connect with your existing account, please enter your password:

    Forgot password

    Subscribe

    to receive more business insights, analysis, and perspectives from Deloitte Insights
    ✓ Link copied to clipboard
    • Contact us
    • Search Jobs
    • Submit RFP
    Follow Deloitte Insights:
    Global office directory Office locations
    XE-EN Location: XE-English  
    About Deloitte
    • Newsroom
    • Deloitte events
    • Our blog collections
    • Press releases
    • Press contacts
    • Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability
    • Report an ethics complaint
    Services
    • Audit & Assurance
    • Consulting
    • Financial Advisory
    • Risk Advisory
    • Tax
    • Deloitte Private
    • Legal
    • Sustainability
    Industries
    • Consumer
    • Energy, Resources & Industrials
    • Financial Services
    • Government & Public Services
    • Life Sciences & Health Care
    • MENA Sovereign Wealth Funds
    • Technology, Media & Telecommunications
    Careers
    • Job Search
    • Students
    • Experienced Hires
    • Executives
    • Life at Deloitte
    • Alumni
    • Diversity and Inclusion
    • About Deloitte
    • About Deloitte in the Middle East
    • Privacy
    • Terms of use
    • Cookies
    • Avature Privacy

    © 2022. See Terms of Use for more information.

    Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. Please see About Deloitte to learn more about our global network of member firms.