Y 272-848. General note.

Governmental services in the United States are provided through a complex organizational structure made up of numerous public bodies and agencies. In addition to the widely recognized pattern of Federal, State, county, municipal, and township governments, there exist many offshoots in the form of single-function and multiplefunction districts, authorities, commissions, boards, and other entities that have varying degrees of autonomy. The basic pattern differs widely from State to State. Within a particular State, the various classes of local units may also differ in their characteristics.

Identification and enumeration of governmental units is, of course, a prerequisite to comprehensive reports on their activities. Thus, the U.S. Bureau of the Census report, Census of Governments, 1967, vol. I, Governmental Organization, provides information on numbers of governmental units by type, size, and location.

The summary historical table from the 1967 Census of Governments, reproduced below, presents the numbers of different types of governmental units for 1942, 1952, 1957, 1962, and 1967.

Table I. Governmental Units, by Type: 1942 to 1967

the administrative structure of any other governmental unit. To be counted as a government, any entity must possess all three of the attributes reflected in the foregoing definition: Existence as an organized entity, governmental character, and substantial autonomy.

Characteristics taken as evidence of the "essential attributes" of a separately existing governmental unit include organization, active operation, and the possession of specific corporate powers; the popular election or appointment of officers; the power to levy taxes or to issue debt that bears interest exempt from Federal taxation; responsibility for performing a function commonly regarded as governmental; public accountability; and considerable administrative and fiscal independence.

Despite the variety and apparent simplicity of these criteria, the proper classification of some local governmental entities remains doubtful and, in such cases, account has been taken of (a) local attitudes as to whether the type of unit involved is independent, and (b) the effect of the classification upon the collection and presentation of statistics of governmental finances and employment.

Represents zero.

Comparable data for the number of governments are not available for earlier years, principally because definition of the concept of "a governmental unit" and enumeration of the units in existence are beset with many difficulties. Professor William Anderson of the University of Minnesota has done extensive work in this field, and the enumerations by the Bureau of the Census in 1942 and later reflect his contributions.

Anderson's monograph, The Units of Government in the United States: An Enumeration and Analysis, first published in 1934 and revised in 1936, was extensively revised in 1942 and finally republished in 1945 with an appendix comparing the author's enumeration of governments with that of the 1942 Census of Governments. (Public Administration Service, Chicago, 1945.) Anderson reported 175,418 governments in the United States in 1930-33 and 165,049 in 1941. The 1942 Census of Governments adopted a more selective definition, eliminating 9,729 school districts and 204 other units from enumeration as separate entities. Anderson reported that he had “good reason to believe that the Bureau's figures represent a more accurate enumeration." (Source cited above, p. 48.)

The comparative totals reported by Anderson, on the basis of his definitions and procedures, are summarized in table II.

A governmental unit as defined in the 1967 Census of Governments (Governmental Organization, cited above, p. 13) is as follows:

A government is an organized entity which, in addition to having governmental character, has sufficient discretion in the management of its own affairs to distinguish it as separate from

1086

Two broad categories of governmental units may be distinguished ---special-purpose organizations, such as school, park, and sanitary districts; and general-purpose governments, each with a broad spectrum of powers and duties, ranging in size from small village and town governments to the large metropolitan city, State, and Federal governments.

These diverse units can be represented by at least two kinds of measures that are universally applicable: (a) the number of persons serving in each governmental unit and their compensation, and (b) the broad financial aspects of the operations, as represented by revenues, expenditures, and indebtedness. The collection and reporting of such data are complicated by the large numbers and frequent changes of the governmental units to be covered, by changes (often unrecorded) in their internal structures and external relationships, and by the great diversity that exists in organizational forms, employment relationships, financial procedures, the adequacy and availability of records, and the categories and terminologies used in those records and in public reporting. For the most part, data for the Federal Government are derived from regular personnel and fiscal reports, published annually or oftener. Those for the States and large cities are compiled from annual public reports or other official records of each unit and its component organizational subdivisions; and those of other local governments are derived from surveys based on similar reports and records of carefully selected samples of each type of government.

Complete censuses of governments, covering governmental structure, personnel, expenditures, revenues, debt, and other selected aspects of all governments in the United States, were conducted for 1932, 1942, 1957, 1962, and 1967. Earlier periodic censuses (for decennial years for 1850-1890 and for 1902, 1912, and 1922) were narrower in scope, particularly with reference to expenditures and personnel.

The various censuses of governments and also the annual reports on personnel and finances, differ not only in completeness, but also in some of the basic concepts and classifications. Consequently, the preparation of historically comparable data covering all governmental units is extremely difficult. As is evident in the historical series for the Federal Government, events and changing concepts greatly affect the comparability, over long periods, of data for a single government. The problem of continuity in concepts and classifications is greatly multiplied in summaries for all governmental entities.

For such reasons, the consolidated historical series now available are for selected years beginning with 1902. The data available for earlier years are either inadequate for classifications now used or require more extensive reworking than could be achieved with available resources.

State and local government data in this chapter include Alaska and Hawaii for years after admission as States; they omit outlying areas of the United States. The District of Columbia is classified as a local government.

For references to publications containing the original data and statistics for individual State and local governments, see text for series Y 652-848.

For still another approach to the role of Government operations in the economy, see series F 66-70, reporting Government purchases of goods and services, in which the Federal Government totals for 1938-1970 are subdivided between national defense and other purposes. For national income originating in "Government" as an industry, see series F 141; and for estimates of "Government product" in the national income accounts, see series F 129.

Y 272-334. General note.

Statistics on government employment and payrolls in the United States appear in The Trend of Government Activity in the United States Since 1900, by Solomon Fabricant, assisted by Robert E. Lipsey, National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, 1952, pp. 161-203. Fabricant and Lipsey relate their figures to the government employment data for 1929-1949 and earlier periods published by the Office of Business Economics and predecessor agencies. The latter figures differ from the former chiefly in omitting, for national income accounts, all Federal Government employees abroad. Also differentiated are earlier estimates prepared for the National Bureau of Economic Research by Simon Kuznets in National Income and Its Composition, 1919-1938, New York, 1941, vol. II, pp. 811-826. This study did not have data from the Work Projects AdministrationBureau of Labor Statistics compilations noted below. For reference to other studies for earlier years, see text for series Y 332-334.

The WPA-BLS figures, mentioned above, cover 1929-1939. They were obtained as part of a larger survey of State and local governments conducted in 1938-1943 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and financed and staffed by the Work Projects Administration. Annual estimates of employment and payrolls of State and local governments and the underlying detailed estimates of States, by classes of governments and major fields of employment, were published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Employment and Pay Rolls of State and Local Governments, January 1946.

Sample surveys by the Bureau of the Census began in 1940 on a quarterly basis, giving reports of January, April, July, and October data. School data prior to 1946 were from the Office of Education and reported only for State and local aggregates, so that pre-1946 detail by level and type of government relates only to the nonschool data.

State-by-State estimates were issued by the Bureau of the Census at least once a year from the early 1940's, except for 1951. Summary data were provided on the school (education) component, but other functional detail was supplied only for State and municipal governments until 1952. Development of separate payroll figures on fulltime employees was begun in 1951, and derivation of employment figures on a full-time equivalent basis was initiated in 1952. Beginning with 1953, national and State-by-State data have been reported by function, on the full-time equivalent number of employees of State and local governments for the month of October (except 1957 data, which were for April).

Beginning with 1955, the Bureau of Labor Statistics assumed responsibility for providing monthly statistics on government employment and payrolls.

Both series Y 272-289 and Y 332-334 cover all types of specialpurpose districts as well as general-purpose local governments and all branches of the State governments; and both include the employees of government utilities as well as of general government services and agencies. Education employment includes noninstructional staff and the educational employees of State as well as local governments. Both tabulations omit military personnel and persons on work relief. Federal Government employment and payrolls for 1952-70, series Y 273 and Y 291, respectively, are derived from Civil Service Commission data. Prior to 1952, these figures (Y 273 and 291) are basically the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures and, therefore, differ in coverage and date from the Civil Service Commission's historical tabulations for the Federal Government alone (series Y 308-317). Differences from labor force data. Data collected from the governmental employers, such as the Bureau of the Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics compilations on public employment referred to above, necessarily differ from government employment statistics derived from broad surveys of the labor force (see, for example, series Y 332-334).

Data on the labor force, and therefore on government workers, are collected by the Bureau of the Census in monthly surveys and published in its Current Population Reports. These surveys involve direct personal interviews with selected samples of households throughout the Nation. Governments are listed as an industry group, and members of the labor force who report that they are government workers are so classified.

Y 272-307. Public employees and government monthly payrolls, by type of government, 1940-1970.

Source: 1940-1967, U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Governments: 1967, vol. 6, No. 5, Historical Statistics on Governmental Finance and Employment; 1968-1970, Public Employment, annual issues.

Data on Federal employment and payrolls were obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) prior to 1952 and the Civil Service Commission since that time. BLS figures were based on Civil Service data. Substantially all basic data for State and local governments were collected by mail surveys of the Bureau of the Census. However, prior to 1946, data on school employment were derived from the U.S. Office of Education publication, Biennial Survey of Education in the United States.

The reports on public employment outline the development of the Bureau of the Census reporting of statistics on public employees and payrolls, record data for the years back to 1940, and provide information on the concepts and definitions used. Additional data on Federal, State, and local governments are contained in the U.S. Census of Governments: 1957, vol. 2, Governmental Employment; the U.S. Census of Governments: 1962, vol. 3, Compendium on Public Employment; and the U.S. Census of Governments: 1967, vol. 3, Public Employment.

Public employees, as defined for the purpose of the Bureau of the Census survey of government employment, include all paid officials and civilian employees of Federal, State, and local governmental units. Employees of contractors, persons working on a contract