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Government employment declined in 2003

April 14, 2004

In 2003, government employment contracted for the first time in more than two decades.

Percent change in employment in government, fourth quarter 2002 to fourth quarter 2003 (seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

Federal government employment decreased 1.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2002 to the fourth quarter of 2003. Although cutbacks by the U.S. Postal Service account for a portion of the job decline, employment in the Federal Government, except U.S. Postal Service also fell over the year.

Job growth stalled in State government and local government in 2003. Both sectors exhibited no change in employment over the year.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. The above figures refer to fourth-quarter averages and are seasonally adjusted. Find out more about employment in 2003 in "The U.S. labor market in 2003: signs of improvement by year’s end," by Rachel Krantz, Marisa Di Natale, and Thomas J. Krolik, Monthly Labor Review, March 2004.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Government employment declined in 2003 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2004/apr/wk2/art03.htm (visited October 06, 2024).

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