As an added bonus

Not only do federal government employees not have to worry about job loss, they can read the NBER's papers for free;

After accounting for worker characteristics, during both recessionary and non-recessionary periods, the probability of job loss is higher for private sector workers than for public sector workers at all levels of government. ....the advantage of public sector employment in terms of job loss rates generally increased during recessions for all groups of public sector workers.

Thus ... public sector jobs, while not generally recession-proof, do offer more security than private sector jobs, and the advantage widens during recessions. These patterns are present across genders, races, and educational groups.

.... You may purchase this paper on-line in .pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery. ....
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