Labor: The Biggest Employer

The Labor Department announced last week that an alltime high of 70.9 million Americans had jobs in July (and unemployment dropped seasonally by 500,000, to 4,300,000). But the Chase Manhattan Bank added a relevant foot note: more civilians than ever are working for the nation’s biggest employer, government.

Not counting men and women in military service, 13.5% of the nation’s workers are government workers. Since 1955, the federal work force has increased 8% , to 2,500,000, but the real jump has been in the number of employees of state and local governments, which has increased 45% , to 7,000,000. If the trend continues, the government at all levels will employ one in every four workers by 1980.