President Barack Obama (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

(CNSNews.com) - The best news anywhere in the U.S. economy over the past three months has been in the government sector, where unemployment has dropped dramatically from 5.7 percent in July to 5.1 percent in August to 4.3 percent in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Both the federal and state governments increased their employees in July, August and September.

The Obama administration has added 10,000 civilian workers to the federal government's payroll since July, according to BLS. In that month, the federal government employed 2,804,000 civilian workers. In August, that increased to 2,810,000. And, in September, the number of civilian federal employees increased again to 2,814,000.

The BLS's count of civilian federal employees does not include members of the military or individuals who work for certain intelligence gathering agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA.

The Obama administration has been able to accomplish a net increase in federal employees over the past three months even while the U.S. Postal Service--whose employees are considered part of the federal workforce--eliminated jobs and decreased its payroll. In July, according to BLS, the Postal Service employed 610,000 people. In August, that declined to 609,900, and in September that declined to 606,900.

State governments have added a net of 17,000 new workers to their taxpayer-funded payrolls over the past three months. In July, state government around the nation employed 5,052,000 people. In August, that climbed to 5,056,000, and in September it climbed again to 5,069,000.