Some readers have been picking up on various statements I have made about the decline in public employment in Australia over the last thirty or so years and what it means for the trajectory of unemployment. I am on the public record as saying that if the persistence of unemployment in Australia is largely to do with the failure of the public sector employment to maintain growth in line with labour force growth. If it had have achieved this then we would have had very low levels of unemployment during the growth period following the 1991 recession. The 1991 recession was much worse because the public sector cut its employment growth. Further, while neo-liberals hold the US out as a model for us to follow, the fact remains that US government employment growth has more or less maintained pace with US labour force growth. The resulting unemployment dynamics are in stark contrast to those found in Australia.