Government Employment Up

Employment by state and local governments edged upward last year, to top its 1980 record level and continue a growth pattern interrupted only twice since World War II, the Census Bureau reported today.

State and local governments had the equivalent of 11,143,000 full-time employees as of last October, topping the 1980 record of 11,047,000 workers, the bureau said. Employees of state and local governments have been increasing steadily since the war, pausing only in 1981 and 1982.