15.3 Percent of US Workers on Govt Payrolls

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 15.3 percent of American workers are on the government payroll.^[1]

The share of government employees is nearly twice as high in Norway (30.0 percent), Denmark (29.1 percent), and Sweden (28.6 percent). It is far lower in Germany (10.6 percent), South Korea (7.6 percent), and Japan (5.9 percent).^[2]

Source: statista 

Government employees in the U.S. provide a wide range of services. The largest numbers are hired by local governments, including positions such as teachers, firefighters, and police officers.

The United States also has 519,000 elected officials serving 87,576 governing bodies. Many of these officials are unpaid.

Footnotes:

1. OECD Publishing, "Government at a Glance 2017," accessed July 25, 2017
2. Statista, "Scandinavia: First For Public Sector Employment," July 20, 2017

Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia. Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.

Scott Rasmussen is a Senior Fellow for the Study of Self-Governance at the King’s College in New York and an Editor-At-Large for Ballotpedia, the Encyclopedia of American Politics. His most recent book, "Politics Has Failed: America Will Not," was published by the Sutherland Institute in May.To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.