The Kentucky Center for Statistics recently conducted an analysis of employees of state-government-owned establishments (which we’ll call "state government employees" in this article) since 2007 and found that the number of state government employees, as of 2021, had decreased by nearly 9,800 since a peak in 2011.

Who is considered a state government employee?

KYSTATS analyzed data on state government employees who were employed at the following public sector entities: 

• The executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government 
• Public elementary, middle, and high schools
• State colleges and universities
• State-owned hospitals, nursing, and residential care facilities
• State-owned parks, museums, and historical sites

What do age brackets reveal? 

From 2007 to 2021, the largest age group of state government employees was 35 to 44, with the median age of a state employee at 43. The second largest age bracket of state government employees was 45-54. The overall age of workers also increased from 2007 to 2021. The percentage of employees older than 65 was just 4.2% in 2007, and by 2021 it had risen to 6.6%. To provide context, the largest age bracket for the non-government workforce is ages 25-34, and the median age is 39 years.

What else do we know about the state government workforce? 

The state government workforce had a higher percentage of female workers than the non-government workforce. As of 2021, the state government workforce was 56.8% female, and the non-government workforce was 44.5% female. The non-government workforce was 44.9% male compared to 40% in state government.

Other Resources

For additional information on Kentucky’s labor force changes over time, visit our interactive Civilian Labor Force Report, or the Workforce Overview Report for Kentucky Regions (WORKR).