EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, AUGUST 4, 2000 (FRIDAY) Public Information Office CB00-127 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 301-457-1037 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Ellen Thompson 301-457-1531 State and Local Government Employment Up 1.5 Percent in 1999, Census Bureau Says State and local governments employed 14.7 million full-time equivalent workers in 1999, 1.5 percent more than in 1998, according to tabulations for the 50 states and the District of Columbia released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. Of the total, local governments employed 10.7 million employees and state governments, 4.0 million. Full-time equivalents include the number of full-time employees who could have been employed if the hours worked by part-time employees had been worked by full-time employees. For instance, two people working half days would be considered as one full-time equivalent. The tabulations from the 1999 Annual Survey of State and Local Government Employment and Payroll data show that most full-time equivalent employees worked in education (7.6 million), hospitals (952,000) and police protection (849,000). Other employment categories include 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 error. 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.-X-