Guest post by Joe Hoft

The US Government, including all federal, state and local employees, employs nearly as many employees as ALL Fortune 500 companies combined.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of April 2016 more than 22 million people were employed in the US government. Their measurement of government employment covers only civilian employees; military personnel are excluded. Employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency also are excluded. Postal Services are included.

The US has another 1.4 million military personnel in the defense forces today. Combined with the BLS measurement the total number of government employees including the military is more than 23 million. This doesn’t include the CIA and other agencies noted above.

Fortune magazine came out with its list of the 500 largest corporations in America. This list is commonly known as the Fortune 500. The total employment for the 500 largest companies in the US at the end of 2015 was 26.8 million people.

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This means that the US government employs nearly as many people (86% ) as the top 500 largest corporations in the US today. It’s no wonder that the US is now more than $19 trillion in debt!