Big Employer (But Not That Big)
With more than 1.8 million civilian employees (not counting postal workers), the federal government is one big employer. But it's not as big as the largest private sector company. That would be Wal-Mart Stores, with more than 2 million employees. And Uncle Sam's workforce pales in comparison to that of state and local government.
The Census Bureau reports that the almost 90,000 state and local governments across the country employed 16.4 million people last year, up 4.5 percent from 2002. The biggest areas of employment were education (8.8 million), hospitals (989,000), police protection (933,000) and corrections (731,000).
COMMENTS
Post a Comment
By using this Service you agree not to post material that is obscene, harassing, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable. Although GovExec does not monitor comments posted to this site (and has no obligation to), it reserves the right to delete, edit, or move any material that it deems to be in violation of this rule.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Government Executive Editor in Chief Tom Shoop, along with other editors and staff correspondents, take a fresh look at news affecting the management and operations of the federal bureaucracy.
1.8 million workers with the collective output of 600 thousand. I suppose its to be expected considering how our Congress does their job.
Robert M. Posted Monday, October 27, 2008 6:48 AMMy experience in government service as well as the private sector is that nearly all workers do what is expected of them--and many do more. If there is a quarrel over government productivity, one has not looked closely enough at what managers require from their employees. Many agencies set artificial benchmarks, and more energy is spent achieving these than in performing the agency mission. Doing a good job for the public may be counter to the goals of a good scorecard.
Ted Bean Posted Wednesday, October 29, 2008 5:05 PM