Public Employment Data

As our chapters on federalism and bureaucracy point out, states and localities account for most public employees. The Census has relevant data in its Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll Summary Report: 2010.

State and local governments employed 19.6 million people as of March 2010; 244,679 fewer than were employed at the same time in 2009. The downward trend set in 2009 continued in 2010, which was the first year on record since 1992 in which total employment in state and local governments decreased. (The survey was not conducted in 1996.) The decline was led by a loss of 224,479 jobs in local governments. State governments also lost 20,200 employees in the same period.

There were a total of 14.8 million full-time and 4.8 million part-time employees in state and local governments across the United States in March of 2010. In March 2009, there were 15.0 million fulltime and 4.9 million part-time employees in state and local governments nationally. The majority of public employees worked in local governments. On a national level, 5.3 million people were employed by state governments and 14.3 million by local governments in March of 2010. Among local governments, 11.0 million, or 76.8 percent, of all employees worked on a full-time basis. State governments employed 3.8 million, or 71.4 percent, of their workers on a full-time basis.