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(CNSNews.com) - The number of people working for the federal government has declined by 13,000 in 2017, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At the same time, overall government employment in the United States increased by 7,000 as the number of people working at the state government level and the local government level both increased.

Meanwhile, the significant increase in manufacturing jobs that started last December halted in September as the nation lost 1,000 jobs in that sector.

“Manufacturing employment was essentially unchanged in September (-1,000),” the BLS said in its monthly employment release. “From a recent employment trough in November 2016 through August of this year, the industry had added an average of 14,000 jobs per month.”

In December 2016, the federal government employed 2,819,000 people. In September, according to the preliminary numbers released today by BLS, it employed 2,806,000—a decline of 13,000 people employed by the federal government.

However, while the federal government workforce has declined by 13,000 this year the total number of people working for government in the United States (including state and local government) has increased by 38,000—rising from 22,299,000 in December 2016 to 22,337,000 in September.

State governments added 15,000 workers—with employment at that level of government rising from 5,085,000 in December 2016 to 5,100,000 in September.

Local governments added 36,000 workers—with employment in at the local level of government rising from 14,395,000 in December 2016 to 14,431,000 in September.

Despite losing 1,000 jobs in September, the manufacturing sector has still gained 104,000 jobs in this year. In December, there were 12,343,000 employed in manufacturing in the United States. In September, there were 12,447,000.

Despite the gain in manufacturing jobs since the start of this year, government jobs continue to massively outnumber manufacturing jobs in the United States. As of September, the 22,337,000 employed by governemt in the United States outnumbrered the 12,447,000 employed in manufacturing by 9,890,000.

The first time government jobs outnumbered manufacturing jobs in this country was August 1989, prior to that--going back to 1939 (the earliest year for BLS's sector-by-sector employment numbers)--manufacturing jobs had always outnumbered government jobs in this country.