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Got a link for the 600k figure? According to the US Office of Personnel Management, http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/employment_access.asp, these are the annual numbers:

  Sept 2011 - 2,130,289  
  Sept 2010 - 2,113,210
  Sept 2009 - 2,038,183 
  Sept 2008 - 1,938,821


The 600k is probably across all government sectors, not just federal: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES9000000001

Federal employment is slightly above its medium-term average: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES9091000001

The large spike in 2010 is the US census, which by law must be conducted every 10 years. Other than that, though, federal employment isn't exactly ballooning; the trend is (gently) downward, as you can see from both the graphs and the monthly numbers underneath.




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