WASHINGTON Companies are cutting jobs by the tens of thousands. State and local governments are penny-pinching, overmuch. So what about Uncle Sam? Tough times for him as advantageous?

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Not exactly.

In fact the number of federal workers is on the rise.

That might seem strange to the 11 million the community in the U.S. who are out of work - and the millions more who fear they soon will be. Shouldn’t Washington pare down too?

But it is unlikely that President Barack Obama will put at all of the almost 2 million founded upon civil servants out in the road in the middle of the beat housekeeping downturn subsequently to the Great Depression. His proposed $800-plus billion economic support plan, what one. includes heavy spending on public works, is expected to enlarge the ranks of federal workers, albeit mostly at the state and local level.

That means to an end is working its way through Congress just as Microsoft Corp., Pfizer, Caterpillar, Home Depot and scores of other companies are shedding workers, and governors are asking or ordering category workers to accept furloughs, salary reductions, truncated workweeks or reduced benefits.

“Federal belt-tightening would worsen the problem right now,” said Kevin Hassett, manager of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a preservative think tank. “Most economists comply that the federal government is a built-in stabilizer,” said Hassett, a former adviser to GOP presidential campaigns.

Simply letting federal workers avail is “penny-wise and pound foolish,” uttered Max Stier, president of the Partnership on account of Public Service, a nonprofit group that works to revitalize the government and its work force. “We had a situation where we had a single bodily substance monitoring toys coming in from abroad. End result: You get lead-tainted toys coming in to the country,” Stier said. “We need people looking out during the term of the public good.”

Paul Light, professor of society work at New York University, also thinks more, not fewer, founded on workers on needed on the front lines. He said other steps could be taken to trim costs. The Obama administration has suggested reducing the number of managers at the middle levels, he said.

“That would be a good thing,” Light said. “What he hasn’confidentially suggested is that we reduce political appointees at the senior level. I just think you could do some things to say to the public, `Look, the treaty management is going to rise its share of sacrifice and it’s more than just having energy-efficient buildings.’”

The form of sovereignty’s civilian, nonmilitary work force peaked in the late 1960s at about 2.3 million. It was 2 very great number or more end the mid-1990s, when the government cut more than 400,000 jobs - many through military base closings. Since 2001, civilian employment in the executive tributary stream, excluding postal employees, has edged upward from 1.7 million to about 2 million, largely because of new homeland security jobs.

More treaty job openings are on the horizon.

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