You read wrong. College graduates are working in the public sector for nothing, as interns, in the hope that when hiring starts again they'll have a leg up on everyone else.

I just came from the public sector, remember? The layoffs, demotions and furloughs are savaging the ranks of senior employees, and hiring freezes for FNGs are everywhere. Do you really think I would have taken early retirement in this economy if things were all that sweet working for the county? My department was cut back from 23 to 15, I had a 50-50 chance of being next, and I was being threatened with losing my unused vacation and sick leave (as well as my state pension) because of a reorganization which was being shoved through to alter our umbrella organization (so contracts would not have to be honored). Take my word for it, this gravy train of government jobs the right talks about is bullshit. It's just a convenient way to give private employees someone to hate so they won't realize how bad they're getting screwed.

Public employee salaries haven't gone up. Private employee pay has gone down.