State and local government employment, by industry, 2017

Industry Number of state and local government workers Share of all state and local government workers
All 17,297,910 100.0%
Education 8,819,086 51.0%
Elementary and secondary schools 6,894,850 39.9%
Colleges and universities, including junior colleges 1,859,709 10.8%
Other education 64,526 0.4%
Justice, public order, and safety activities 2,616,618 15.1%
Executive offices and legislative bodies 957,732 5.5%
Administration of human resource programs 720,408 4.2%
Hospitals 502,210 2.9%
Construction 351,500 2.0%
Individual and family services 351,354 2.0%
Administration of economic programs and space research 299,207 1.7%
Public finance activities 198,471 1.1%
Museums, art galleries, historical sites, and similar institutions 191,202 1.1%
Administration of environmental quality and housing programs 173,733 1.0%
Bus service and urban transit 158,424 0.9%
Libraries and archives 151,483 0.9%
Water, steam, air-conditioning, and irrigation systems 141,745 0.8%
Other amusement, gambling, and recreation industries 126,506 0.7%
Outpatient care centers 105,070 0.6%
Other general government and support 96,705 0.6%
Waste management and remediation services 82,339 0.5%
Home health care services 82,308 0.5%
Other health care services 81,073 0.5%
Child day care services 76,884 0.4%
Landscaping services 69,203 0.4%
Sewage treatment facilities 67,375 0.4%
Nursing care facilities 66,782 0.4%
Services incidental to transportation 65,020 0.4%
Residential care facilities, without nursing 52,500 0.3%
Electric power generation, transmission and distribution 50,612 0.3%
All other industries 642,358 3.7%

Note: Shares are calculated using five years of pooled microdata, 2013–2017. Shares for each industry are applied to total state and local employment, which is calculating using 2017 microdata.

Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata

View the underlying data on epi.org.