Some Basic Facts on State and Local Government Workers Updated
June 15, 2012 This brief report presents some basic facts about
state and local employees: the jobs they perform, how many there
are, how their pay compares with pay in the private sector, and
how much states and localities — mainly school districts,
cities, and counties — spend on pay and benefits. Who Are Public
Employees? By far the largest share of state and local
government workers are the nearly 7 million teachers, aides, and
support staff working in the nation’s elementary, middle, and
high schools. (See Figure 1). Other prominent categories of
state and local employment are protective services (including
police officers, fire fighters, and correctional officers),
higher education, health care (including nurses and other
workers at public hospitals and clinics), and transportation
(including road maintenance workers and bus drivers). How Has
the Number of Public Employees Changed Over Time? Over the last
30 years, the number of state and lo