State and Local Government Employment and Payroll

This database reports state and local civilian government employees and their gross monthly payroll based on surveys from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Those surveys are conducted in March for state and local governments. Data are provided on full-time and part-time employment, part-time hours worked, full-time equivalent employment, and payroll statistics by governmental function.  Some data are imputed.  Data are not collected in every year, particularly for cities with lower populations.

Data are not available for all local areas. There is no detail available for full-time or part-time employee payrolls. Three functions apply only to the Federal Government and have no counterpart at the state and local government levels: national defense and international relations, postal service, and space research and technology. For more information, see U.S. Census Bureau.

Per 1,000 calculations for states and counties utilize population data from the State Statistics database Population by Race, Ethnicity, Age & Gender.  Per 1,000 calculations for cities and school districts utilize Census Bureau Government Organization & Structure Tables.  In some cases, city or school district population for specific years are unavailable and adjacent years are utilized.  E.g., per 1,000 calculations for cities and school districts for 2019 use 2017 population; 2021 calculations use 2020 population; 2022 calculations use 2021 population; and 2022 and 2023 calculations use 2024 population.  Per 1,000 calculations are not available for special districts.