Government employees in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
State government employees
Federal government employees
(The blip up in hiring at the Federal level every 10 years is for the United States census)
In the United States, government employees includes the U.S. federal civil service, employees of the state governments, and employees of local governments.[citation needed]
Government employees are not necessarily the same as civil servants, as some jurisdictions specifically define which employees are civil servants; for example, it often excludes military employees.[1]
The federal government is the nation's single largest employer, although it employs only about 12% of all government employees, compared to 24% at the state level and 63% at the local level.[2]
Non-federal employees in states can vary based on unique circumstances: for example, as of 2014, Wyoming had the most per capita public employees due to its public hospitals, followed by Alaska which has a relatively high number of highways and natural resources.[3] The category of Elementary/Secondary Education has the highest employment per capita across states.[3]
In 2012, three states (Arizona, Colorado, and Tennessee) passed major changes to their civil service hiring systems as part of a civil service reform movement, making it easier to hire and fire state employees.[4]
