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Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll Summary Report: 2011

Written by:
Report Number G11-ASPEP

Introduction

This report is part of a series of reports that provides information on the structure, function, finances, taxation, employment, and pension systems of the United States’ approximately 90,000 state and local governments. The U.S. Census Bureau currently produces the Census of Governments quinquennially for the years ending in “2” and “7.” Additionally, associated intercensal surveys provide data quarterly and annually. These surveys provide a wealth of data on the economic activity of state and local governments.

For Census Bureau statistical purposes, a government is defined as an organized entity subject to public accountability, whose officials are popularly elected or are appointed by public officials, and which has sufficient discretion in the management of its affairs to distinguish it as separate from the administrative structure of any other government unit. Types of governments canvassed include states, counties, cities, townships, special districts, and school districts.

This report presents data on state and local government employment and payroll based on information collected by the 2011 Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll for the month of March and historical data collected by prior surveys and censuses of government units. Data are published in tables at the federal, state, and local levels. Tables describing state and local level activities are compiled into national, as well as individual state totals. Employment estimates are available for full- and part-time workers, as well as full-time equivalent employees. Total pay amounts are also available separately for full- and part-time employees.

The Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll collects employment and payroll data broken out by functional category or type of job. The survey has maintained definitions consistently over the years, adding new services to definitions of functions as these services came to exist among state and local governments.

In addition to basic functional categories, three umbrella categories group functional categories together: Total Education, Total Police Protection, and Total Fire Protection. Education is an umbrella category covering all employees that are engaged in the operation, maintenance, and construction of public education facilities. This includes teachers, administrators, clerical, cafeteria, and maintenance workers, among others at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels. Education data are available by component at the elementary/secondary levels, as well as higher education for instructional and noninstructional employees.

Police protection includes employees of police departments who are sworn police officers, as well as those in assistance, such as dispatchers, coroners, and crime lab employees. Sworn police officers are counted specifically and can be separated from the wider functional category as shown in Tables 1 and 2. Fire protection is divided between firefighters and other fire protection personnel.

Contracted employees of governments are not included in the employment or payroll amounts
shown in this report. Additionally, these data do not account specifically for the effects of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on public employment and payroll in state and local governments.

Related Information


Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021
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