Education, Hospitals, Police – Comprise the Largest State and Local Government Employment Groups

Local governments employed 14.2 million workers in March 2019, far more than state governments that had 5.5 million employees on their payroll, says the Census Bureau. The latest report, the 2019 ASPEP, says that in March 2019 state and local governments employed 19.7 million people, an increase of 0.4% from the 2018 total. According to the survey, 14.8 million were classified as full-time and 4.8 million were part-time employees. Full-time state and local government payroll increased 3.4% to $79 billion, and part-time employees’ payroll totaled $6.8 billion.

Of the total 11.2 million public education employees, 8.3 million worked at the local government level, primarily in elementary and secondary education. The Elementary and Secondary Education category comprised most local government employment. State governments, as a comparison, employed another 2.9 million education employees, mostly in higher education.