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> How can job gains be in government?

By gaining more employees than they lost.

> Does that mean size of government is growing?

In the literal sense of increasing staffing, yes.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

> Government employment increased by 52,000 in December. Employment continued to trend up in local government (+37,000) and federal government (+7,000). Government added an average of 56,000 jobs per month in 2023, more than double the average monthly gain of 23,000 in 2022.

On a recent Moody's economics podcast they did not think this was the case. Rather this job growth in government was more about back-filling positions they had struggled to fill when the private sector had been pushing up wages and pulling people out of government jobs.

That sounds plausible; thanks.

It could have been a surge of temps at USPS to handle holiday mail volume.

Does "government" include teachers, police, and fire-fighters?

It does, yes.

Unless they are teachers at private schools, yes.