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Mike Bergman CB02-88 Public Information Office (301) 457-3030/457-3670 (fax) (301) 457-1037 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov State and Local Governments Employ More Than 15 Million, Census Bureau Reports State and local governments employed 15.4 million "full-time equivalent" workers in 2001, a 2 percent increase over 2000, according to the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. Of that total, local governments reported 11.2 million full-time equivalent employees and state governments employed 4.2 million. (The number of full-time equivalent employees is equal to the number of hours worked by part-time employees divided by the standard number of hours for a full-time employee. The result is then added to the number of full-time employees.) The tabulations from the 2001 Annual Survey of State and Local Government Employment and Payroll show that most full-time equivalent employees worked in education (8 million), hospitals (922,000) and police protection (885,000). Other employment categories covered were corrections, streets and highways, public welfare, health, judicial-legal, financial administration and fire protection. As with all surveys, the data are subject to sampling variability, as well as nonsampling errors. Sources of nonsampling error include errors of response, nonreporting and coverage. Measures of sampling variability, presented as relative standard errors, are shown in the tables.