Government Sector Industry Profile

The US government services sector consists of about 150,000 federal, state, and local government entities with combined budgets of about $7 trillion. The federal government is the largest single employer in the US, with about 2.8 million employees, including armed services employees. The largest government agencies by employment are the federal Department of Defense (DoD) (including all branches of the armed forces), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Treasury Department, and Department of Justice (DOJ).

The federal government manages a budget in excess of $3.5 trillion. State and local (including municipalities and counties) government budgets are much smaller - collectively, expenditures for the over 19,000 US municipalities, 16,500 towns and townships, and 3,000 county governments are approximately $3 trillion. The 50 states spend a combined $1.6 trillion.

US state-specific data can be found in First Research's State profiles, for all 50 states and Washington, DC. Separate profiles also are available for Canadian provinces.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand for federal government services is driven by population growth and changing demographics of the US population. For example, the US Census Bureau estimates that the over-65 population will climb nearly 80 percent by 2030, which will increase the demand for programs like Social Security and Medicare over the next 20 years.

State and local governments experience similar demand drivers, but face increasing or decreasing revenues from which to fund services ...