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Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll Summary Report: 2024 By Kimberly Ennis, Ross Jacobson, Dylan Maloney, Nicholas Saxon, Jami Segal, Jennifer Wenning, and Sean Wilburn Released March 27, 2025 G24-ASPEP STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT In March 2024, state and local governments employed 19.9 million people, an increase of 2.5 percent from the 2023 figure of 19.4 million. Nationally, local government workers comprised the majority of the state and local government workforce with 14.4 million employees (72.3 percent). In comparison, state governments employed 5.5 million workers (27.7 percent). Of the total 19.9 million employed, 15.4 million were classified as full-time and 4.5 million as part-time. Full-time employment by state governments increased by 3.3 percent to 4.0 million, while full-time employment by local governments increased 2.1 percent to 11.4 million. The number of part-time state government employees increased 2.1 percent to 1.5 million, with the largest total increase in higher education. Part- time local government employees increased 3.4 percent to 3.0 million, with the largest total increases in elementary and secondary education, parks and recreation, and all other and unallocable. State and Local Governments: Payroll In March 2024, state and local governments paid their employees a total of $107.2 billion, an increase of 7.4 percent from the 2023 figure of $99.9 billion. Included in this total is a state government payroll of $30.9 billion (up 7.9 percent) and a local government payroll of $76.3 billion (up 7.1 percent). Full-time state and local government payroll increased 7.3 percent to $99.3 billion. Full-time payroll comprised 92.6 percent of the total state and local government payroll amount. Part-time employees received the remaining 7.4 percent for a total of $7.9 billion. During March 2024, full-time state employees were paid $28.1 billion (up 8.0 percent), while their local counterparts earned $71.2 billion (up 7.0 percent). Part-time state employees earned $2.8 billion (up 7.0 percent). Local government part-time employees received $5.1 billion (up 8.4 percent). State and Local Governments: Functional Distribution Education, hospitals, and police protection constitute the largest functional categories of state and local governments. In March 2024, 13.4 million people were employed on a full- or part-time basis in a capacity related to these functions. The remaining 6.5 million employees worked in other functional categories. Education, the single largest functional category for state and local government (which includes elementary and secondary, higher, and other education), employed 11.3 million people. Among those public education employees, 8.4 million worked at the local government level, primarily in elementary and secondary education. State governments employed another 2.9 million education employees, mostly in higher education. Hospitals were the next largest functional category with 1.2 million state and local government employees. Of those employees, 0.7 million worked at the local government level and 0.5 million worked at the state government level. Police protection, including people with power of arrest as well as other police support staff, accounted for 1.0 million workers for state and local governments. Local level governments employed 0.9 million of all police protection workers and 0.1 million worked at the state government level. For further information, contact the Economy-Wide Statistics Division, U.S. Census Bureau at 1-800-642-4901 or by e-mail at <ewd.employment. survey@census.gov>. Figure 1. Top 15 Functions: Total Government Employment Elementary and secondary education 35.1 Local State Higher education Hospitals Police protection Corrections All other and unallocable1 Public welfare Health Highways Fire protection Financial administration Judicial and legal Parks and recreation Other government administration Transit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Millions of employees 1 "All other and unallocable" is not a summation of the remaining functions shown separately in the source data; it refers only to employees not applicable to other employment functions. Note: The survey data and technical documentation can be found at <www.census.gov/programs-surveys/apes.html>. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll. 2 U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll: 2024