U.S. Governmental Employees

U.S. government employees include U.S. federal civil authorities, U.S. state government employees, and U.S. local government employees.

Officials are not necessarily the same as public servants, as some jurisdictions explicitly specify which employees are public servants; for example, it usually excludes military personnel.

Talented workers are critical to the success of our Government, and the request for talented workers is competitive. The Government Responsibility Office has set up that charge-critical chops gaps within the civil pool pose a high threat to the nation. Anyhow of whether the faults are in similar government-wide occupations as cybersecurity and accessions, or in agency-specific occupations similar as nursers at the Veterans Health Administration( VHA), chops gaps stymie the civil government from cost- effectively serving the public and achieving results.

Agencies can have chops gaps for different reasons they may have an inadequate number of people or their people may not have the applicable chops or capacities to negotiate charge-critical work. also, current budget and long- term financial pressures, the changing nature of civil work, and a implicit surge of hand retreats that could produce gaps in leadership and institutional knowledge, hang to aggravate the problems created by being chops gaps.

Indeed, the government’s capacity to address complex challenges similar as disaster response, public and motherland security, and fleetly- evolving technology and sequestration security issues requires a professed civil pool suitable to work seamlessly with other agencies, with other situations of government, and across sectors.

The federal government is the nation's largest employer, although it employs only about 12% of all government employees, compared with 24% at the state level and 63% at the local level.

Non-federal workers in states can vary depending on specific circumstances: for example, as of 2014, Wyoming has the most workers per capita due to the number of public hospitals, followed by Alaska with relatively more highways and natural resources. The primary/secondary education category has the highest employment rate per capita in the states.

In 2012, the three states made major changes to their civil service recruitment systems as part of a public service reform movement, making it easier to hire and fire civil servants.

A 2011 study found that 39% of executives and 36% of executives at the top two levels of 118 US agencies were women. Differences in expertise and years of experience were not taken into account in this study. This study found a significant relationship between the gender of leadership and the policy sector, with women 2.8 times more likely to hold senior management positions in an agency where the field is located. policy areas are "feminine", such as education, health or social care. The same study shows that in organizations with women in top management positions, there are more women in second-level management positions.

In 2016, women made up 43.3% of the staff in the federal law enforcement agency.

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The federal government is particularly angry at the scale of it when it comes to counting contract workers alongside recipients of federal benefits. Taking all of this into account, the federal government is thought to employ just over 9 million workers, or nearly 6% of the total US workforce, of 156.92 million in 2019. Breaking down these numbers and then looking at the long-term workforce from a comparative perspective gives us a more detailed picture. As for contract workers, they include clerical, service and canteen staff in government agencies due to the gradual outsourcing of these services. Recipients of federal grants include law enforcement agencies, state and local government organizations, universities and research laboratories, as well as nonprofits and small businesses.

In the United States, nearly 24 million people – just over 15% of the workforce – serve in the military, government, and national service at the local, state, and federal levels. Of these, about 16 million are employed in state and local government. Federal agency data also includes active-duty military personnel and U.S. postal workers. The U.S. Army has about 1.4 million service members and another 800,000 reservists. The number of postal workers is about 800,000 people. In addition to the military and the postal service, 2 million people - just over 1% of the US workforce, or 0.6% of the total population - work full-time in the federal government. More than 70% of federal employees work for defense and security agencies such as the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, and NASA.

The federal government is primarily affiliated with Washington, D.C. and considered separate from the rest of the country. In fact, 85% of federal workers work outside the capital in factories and offices around the country. Every state has federal officials, not just uniformed military and postal workers, for health and education, housing, disaster relief, border, coast and waterway protection, weather forecasting, protection and assurance of food supplies, maintenance. and occupying national parks, promoting small businesses and delivering mail. An October 2019 Pew poll found the government to be supportive of all of these measures. Other polls conducted in 2019 showed a high level of public concern about the impact of the 2018-2019 government shutdown.

State & Local Governments Combined Expenditure

Use this tool to explore aggregated Revenue, Expenditure and Employment data for State and Local Governments.  Customize the view by using the drop-down menus, and selectable category buttons.  Receive additional information by hovering over each data element.  Please note, all Revenue and Expenditure data are annual while Employment data have been annualized from each year’s March statistics.  Dollar amounts are displayed in whole dollars.

In fiscal year 2020, state and local governments spent $3.5 trillion in direct government spending. States spent $1.7 trillion directly, while local governments — cities, towns, counties, school districts, and special districts — spent $1.8 trillion directly.

Although state governments receive more revenue than local governments in 2020, direct local government spending is larger than state spending because local governments typically run programs with money provided by the state government. In 2020, states gave more than $581 billion to local governments.

This amount includes indirect funds from the federal government, commonly known as transit subsidies. For example, the federal government sends money for primary and secondary education to the state government, the state government transfers money to local governments, and then the local government spends dollars directly on programs. educational program.

Most state and local government spending falls into one of seven categories: elementary and secondary education, social welfare (including most spending on Medicaid), higher education, health care, and more. health and hospital, highways and highways, criminal justice (including for police, correctional facilities and courts) as well as housing and community development.

How have state and local expenditures changed over time?

Between 1977 and 2020, in inflation-adjusted dollars, state and local government spending grew from $1.2 trillion to $3.5 trillion, 200 percent increase. Real per capita spending increased from $5,302 to $10,540, up 99% year-on-year.

While spending across all major categories increased during this period, the percentage change in spending categories varied. For example, state and local government social welfare spending in 2020 in inflation-adjusted dollars grew 437% from 1977 to 2020, the largest increase of any category. What is the main expenditure so far. Medicaid accounted for most of this increase, but federal spending on Medicaid also increased from 55 percent to 64 percent during this period. Spending on health care and hospitals increased by 251% from 1977 to 2020. Meanwhile, spending on primary and secondary education increased by 138% from 1977 to 2020.

Spending on higher education has increased by 189 percent, but changes in spending on higher education are compounded by an increase in the share of tuition as a source of funding. Police spending also increased by 189 percent from 1977 to 2019. While spending on correctional facilities and housing has always made up a relatively small share of total state and local spending, both categories of spending increased significantly from 1977 to 2020 (last time). 363 percent and 309 percent, respectively). Of these key spending categories, spending on highways and roads grew the slowest, at 107%, from 1977 to 2020.

How and why does spending differ across states?

State and local governments spent $10,540 per capita in 2020, but direct spending per capita varies greatly from state to state.

Among states, Alaska has the highest per capita and local spending in 2020 at $17,374, followed by Wyoming ($15,641) and New York ($15,373). As usual, per capita spending in the District of Columbia surpassed all states at $23,10,010. Georgia ($7,565) and Tennessee ($7,793) have the lowest per capita spending in 2020.

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Budget surplus of the United States government from the first quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2022 (in trillion U.S. dollars)

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the U.S. government's budget balance amounted to a net borrowing of about 1.44 trillion U.S. dollars. This is compared to the first quarter of 2009, when the U.S. government borrowed about 1.79 trillion U.S. dollars.

Differences in spending are the result of geographical, demographic, historical and other external factors. But they can also be the result of public policy choices, such as generous service levels, social service eligibility rules, or tax policies.

For example, New York City has relatively high spending on primary and secondary education, even though the city has relatively few school-age children compared to the general population and the percentage of children attending school. private schools are higher than most states. New York City's per capita spending is relatively high because it has more teachers per capita and teacher salaries are higher than most states. In contrast, Idaho has a relatively large number of school-age children relative to the total population and a high rate of public school attendance, but has a relatively low per capita cost of education because the state uses fewer teachers per student and lower wages spend more than most states.

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