Part of this is political point scoring in that the politicians advancing these opinions are the opposition, and there are probably tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of government employees that were hired in violation of the rules or on the basis of fraudulent qualifications by these opposition parties when they were in power over the last 10 years. They have a vested interest in trying to portray themselves as 'the parties that care for the average person'. One of the biggest drains on the government and loss making government institutions are these unnecessary employees that were hired to 'reward' constituents. It's easier for a political party to just hire tens of thousands of people (typically their supporters or friends and family of their supporters) into government jobs than to actually put in place reforms that encourage the growth of the private sector & industry that reduces unemployment over the long term.
These are literally political slogans during election time, "We (XYZ political party) gave jobs to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people".