Quarterly Survey of Public Pensions

From the Census Bureau:

This quarterly survey (formerly known as the Finances of Selected State and Local Government Employee Retirement Systems Survey) provides national summary statistics on the revenues, expenditures and composition of assets of the 100 largest state and local public employee retirement systems in the United States. These 100 systems comprise 89.4 percent of financial activity among such entities, based on the 2007 Census of Governments. This survey presents the most current statistics about investment decisions by state and local public employee retirement systems, which are among the largest types of institutional investors in the U.S. financial markets. These statistical tables are published three months after each calendar quarter and show national financial transactions and trends for the past five years.

2007 Census of Govts Counts 16 Million State, Local Employees

The nation's 89,526 state and local governments employed 16.4 million full-time equivalent employees in 2007, a 4.5 percent increase from 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

These State and Local Government Employment and Payroll figures are the first comprehensive data to be released from the 2007 Census of Governments. Local governments include counties, cities, townships, special districts and school districts.

Rebuilding the Government Statistics Infrastructure

The Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies issued a report in January 2006 on the first-ever review of the work of the Governments Division of the U.S. Census Bureau. Panel member Yolanda Kodrzycki of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston prepared a policy brief on the work of the panel and its findings.

As the full report ($55) reads: "Since the early days of the nation, the federal government has collected information on the revenues, expenditures, and other features of state and local jurisdictions and their operations. Today, these data are collected primarily by the Governments Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, which has conducted a census of governments every 5 years since 1957. The division also manages a program of related annual and quarterly surveys, as well as a comprehensive directory of state and local governments. All of this work is now taking place in an environment of constrained resources, and there have been cutbacks in the availability and dissemination of the data."

State and Local Government Statistics at a Crossroads

On the 50th anniversary of the first quinquennial Census of Governments, a National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council panel on research and development priorities for the Census Bureau’s State and Local Government Statistics Program has issued a report that recommends improvements in timeliness, efficiency, relevance, and quality of census data on states and localities. These data are of broad national interest and importance, contributing to understanding of both the U.S. economy and the role that states and local entities play in American federalism. The panel is chaired by Richard P. Nathan, co-director of the Rockefeller Institute.
A set of charts highlighting the work, findings, and recommendations of the panel is available, along with the prepublication text of the panel report. This version of the report will be formally published in hard copy in late October with editorial changes that will not affect the panel’s findings and recommendations. For more information, go to www.rockinst.org.