PrintPrintAt 8.9 million, education workers accounted for more than half of the 16.7 million state and local government employees nationwide in 2008, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Staff Report
Published Oct. 27, 2009
At 8.9 million, education workers accounted for more than half of the 16.7 million state and local government employees nationwide in 2008, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
State and local governments had a 1.4% increase in employment from 2007 to 2008. Local governments, which include counties, cities, townships, special districts and school districts, accounted for 12.3 million full-time equivalent employees in 2008, compared with 4.4 million full-time equivalents that were employed by state governments.
Besides education, some of the other largest employment categories were hospitals (998,000), police protection (952,000) and corrections (748,000).
Other employment categories include streets and highways, public welfare, health, judicial-legal, financial-administration and fire protection.
The payroll for state governments rose by 5.3%, or $937 million, in 2008. Among the functions with the largest increases in payroll were education ($464 million) and corrections ($113 million).
For local governments, payrolls were up 5.9%, or $2.7 billion, in 2008. Among the largest increases were education, fire protection, hospitals and police protection.
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