The data are from the 2002 Census of State and Local Government Employment and Payroll. The census found that most employees worked in education (8.2 million), hospitals (917,000), police protection (887,000) and corrections (702,000). Other employment categories covered were streets and highways, public welfare, health, judicial and legal, financial administration and fire protection.

     Of the total, local governments accounted for 11.4 million full-time equivalent employees and state governments 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 then is added to the number of full-time employees.)

     The data are not subject to sampling variability. Quality-assurance procedures were applied to all phases of collection, processing and tabulation to minimize nonsampling errors. However, the data are still subject to errors of response, nonreporting and data processing.

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