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Governments
Annual Public Employment Survey ANNUAL PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SURVEY
PURPOSE
To provide current estimates of state and local government employment and payrolls. The United States Code, Title 13, authorizes this survey and provides for voluntary responses.
COVERAGE
All state and local governments in the U.S. Local governments include counties, cities, townships, special districts, and school districts. Data for Federal civilian employees are reformatted and included to show total public employment.
CONTENT
Data are obtained on employees, by program function, and for selected job categories. Data on employees include number full- and part-time, gross pay, and hours paid for part-time employees (to calculate full-time equivalent employment). Data by function include 25 primary functions such as education, hospitals, police protection, public welfare, and highways. Data for job categories are limited to major categories such as instructional employees in education and public safety officers in police protection.
FREQUENCY
Reported data are for each government's mid-March pay period. Data collection and processing begin late in March and continue for about 7 months. Data has been collected annually since 1957. Periodic surveys of public employment have been conducted since the 1940's.
METHODS
A compilation of data from 3 sources: an enumeration of all 50 state governments, a survey of about 11,000 selected local governments (or of all 87,000 local governments for census years, years ending in "2" and "7"), and data from Federal agencies. By cooperative agreement, data for state agencies in 30 states and school systems in 4 states are consolidated and submitted by a single state agency (usually on computer tapes). Data for agencies in other states and about 10,000 selected local governments are obtained in a mail-out/mail-back survey. Based on the survey and prior census results, weighted-data estimates are made of employment by all local governments.
The employment survey for non-census years uses a two-stage, stratified sample of local governments similar to that used in the annual public finance survey. First, 4,900 local governments are selected with certainty based population size by type of government, or the performance of key government functions. Next, 6,100 additional governments are selected based on state area and size of financial activity. A new sample is selected every 5 years.
PRODUCTS
Public Employment reports provide U.S. and state area data about 10 months after the reference month (each March). Data content includes measures of full- and part-time employment, full-time equivalent employment, payrolls, average earnings, and selected historical data. Data are shown in total and by function. Similar content is included for each level of government.
Reports consist of viewable tables and data files that users can download from the Internet.
USES
The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses these data to update and develop economic measures for the government sector, such as the national income and product accounts. The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the data to adjust the monthly public employment series. The Department of Housing and Urban Development uses the data to establish payroll guidelines for some local public authorities. State and local governments use the data for peer government analyses. Professional and academic analysts use the information for trend analysis, to compare public and private sector employment and payrolls in the U.S., and to compare U.S. public sector employment with other countries.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Provides the most current, comprehensive and comparable source of data on government employment and payrolls in the U.S., and on trends in public employment activities.
RELATED PROGRAMS
Annual
Survey of State and Local Government Finances
State and Local Government
Public-Employee Retirement System Survey
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You are here: Economic Programs Overview
Governments Annual Public Employment SurveyLast revised: Thursday, 27-Jul-2006 10:39:17 EDT
