Census: State and local governments employed fewer in 2010

The 90,740 state and local governments across the country had 16.6 million full-time equivalent employees in 2010, 203,321 fewer than were employed in 2009, according to estimates released Aug. 30 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of part-time employees shrank much less, down 27,567 from 2009 to 4.8 million in 2010, according to the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll.

Most of the full-time state and local government employees, worked in education (9 million), followed by hospital employees (986,471), police protection (946,196) and corrections (731,692), according to the survey. Local governments — which in the survey include counties, cities, townships, special districts and school districts — accounted for 12.2 million full-time equivalent employees in 2010, while state governments employed 4.4 million. Both levels of government showed decreases in number of full-time equivalent employees between 2009 and 2010.

Local governments in Rhode Island showed the biggest decline in full-time and full-time equivalent employment (7.7 percent), while municipalities and school districts in North Dakota saw the largest increase (7.5 percent). Local governments lost about 56,787 part-time employees overall, with local governments in California seeing the greatest decrease at 47,620 part-time employees. The largest increase in part-time employees was in Texas, which added 24,731 part-time employees.

State governments in Idaho, Connecticut and Rhode Island saw the largest declines in full-time and full-time equivalent employees, each losing about 5 percent of their workforces. Texas saw the largest percent increase (5.9 percent), adding about 17,800 to its workforce. Most state governments saw increases in their part-time workforce, led by Wisconsin, which added 5,063 part-time employees, followed by California with an increase of 2,836 state employees. Florida saw the largest loss in part-time employment (7.5 percent), with a drop of about 3,555 employees.

The Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll shows totals for state and local government full-time and part-time employment, and it details employment by government function at the national and state level. Read more about the survey’s results.