Local Government accounted for 62 percent of all covered Government employment in the State of Colorado in 1997. Average annual employment increased by 5,302 jobs from 1996 to 184,157. Total wages increased by 7 percent to $ 5.07 billion. The average annual wage within Local Government was considerably lower than the Federal or State average at $27,561.

The majority of Local Government employment was classified in Educational Services. Average annualized employment in Educational Services increase by 3,570 to 97,161 in 1997. This sector has increased by 14.4 percent since 1993. The average annual wage was $25,961. Within this sector, 96.5 percent of the jobs were in Elementary and Secondary Schools,

The second largest sector within Local Government was the catchall category of Executive, Legislative, and General Government, except Finance, which averaged 61,863 jobs in 1997. This was a decrease of 10 jobs on the year after increases of 2,303 in 1995 and 2,064.in 1996. Most City and County employees are counted in this section regardless of their function.

There were 7,522 Local Government employees classified in Health Services in 1997. The largest account was the City of Colorado Spring's Memorial Hospital with about 2,750 employees and over $70 million in wages. The second largest employer classified in this sector was Denver Health and Hospital Authority with an average of about 1,300 employees and $59 million in wages.

There were 4,935 jobs classified under Electric, Gas, and Sanitary Services in 1997. The largest employer was the City of Colorado Spring's Department of Public Utilities with about 1,675 employees. The second largest employer is the Denver Water Department with about 1,050 employees. Other than the Denver Water Department, there were 54 establishments with about 600 employees classified under Water Supply.

Other large discernable sectors within Local Government include Amusement and Recreation Services with 2,795 employees and Local and Suburban Transit (RTD) with 2,215 employees. Amusement and Recreation primarily consists of municipal parks departments.