Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from US Census Bureau
- The federal government shutdown is stretching into its second month, with no clear end in sight.
- Using data from the US Census Bureau, we found the town in every state with the highest share of people employed by the local, state, or federal government.
- Many of the towns are home to or near large state universities.
The federal government shutdown has gone on for over a month, with no clear end in sight.
The American Community Survey is an annual survey run by the Census Bureau to allow the government, corporate and academic researchers, and anyone who is curious about demographics to better understand the US population. Among many other subjects, the ACS includes questions about people's employment status.
Using the ACS estimates from 2013 to 2017 for places with at least 1,000 employed people over the age of 16, excluding college campuses and military bases, Business Insider made a map showing the town in each state with the highest share of employees working for the local, state, or federal government.
Read more: The economy of every state and DC, ranked from worst to best
Even after excluding college campuses, many of the remaining places with high shares of government employment are still home to large public universities, like West Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue University, and East Lansing, Michigan, home of Michigan State University.
This is not overly surprising, as universities are often big employers in their home towns, and most employees of public universities are formally employed by their state governments.
This table shows the town with the highest share of employed residents over the age of 16 who work in government:
Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from US Census Bureau
- Read more about demographics and economics in the US:
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- The most disproportionately high-paying job in every state
- Here's how many people in each state were born outside the US