From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Fri Oct 07 2005 - 20:38:23 EDT
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------- Subject: Total number of legal, security & enforcement employees in the USA, 1999 and 2004 compared From: "Jurriaan Bendien" <adsl675281@tiscali.nl> Date: Fri, October 7, 2005 8:28 pm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jerry, With regard to the "social control" infrastructure of US capitalist society, I just did a quick scan of the trend in legal, security & enforcement employment in the USA, and government employment (mainly BLS data), here's some results: Civilian labour force totals: 1999 - 127,274,000 ; 2004 - 128,127,360 ; 0.6% increase Total population, all ages: 1999 - 279,040,000 ; 2004 - 293,655,000 ; 5.2% increase ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Legal occupations (except CMLC): 1999 - 858,320 ; 2004 - 958,520 = 11.7% increase*) Correctional Officers and Jailers: 1999 - 381,250 ; 2004 - 409,580 = 7.4% increase Military personnel (uniformed) (1989 - 2,168, 000); 1999 - 1,386,000 ; 2004 - 1,473,000 ; = 6.3% increase (US Budget data) Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers: 1999 - 581,860 ; 2004 - 616,340 = 5.9% increase Detectives and Criminal Investigators: 1999 - 83,340 ; 2004 - 86,880 = 4.2% increase Parking Enforcement Workers: 1999- 7,660 ; 2004 - 9,990 = 3% increase Court, Municipal, and License Clerks 1999 - 103,090 ; 2004 - 93,910 = 8.9% decrease Security guards: 1999 - 1,088,470 ; 2004 - 978,570 = 9% decrease --------------------------------------------------------------------- Total legal, security & enforcement: 1999 - 4,489,990; 2004 - 4,626,790 = 3% increase All government employees (budget data): 1999 - 21,673,000 ; 2004 - 23,074,000 = 6.5% increase Note *) Another figure cited for total "legal occupations" in 2004 = 1,554,000; but what exactly this includes I do not know. What stands out is the sharp decline of security guards. Whether that is attributable to a real decline, or to an artifact of classification or estimation procedure, or to a genuine employment reduction, I do not know. The US national reported crime "volume" index increased approximately 2 percentage points between 1999 and 2004, although the reported crime "rate" per 100,000 is down approximately 3.2 percentage points during the same interval. Thus, the total amount of reported crime is increasing, but reported crime incidence in the total population is decreasing. (The evacuations of people and destruction to property caused by Hurricane Katrina influenced the Bureau's ability to contact people and businesses in the affected areas. The impact of missing reporters and other operational problems on BLS estimates varied, because of differences in the way information is gathered, and estimates are made. However, these figures are not affected by the hurricane, because that event occurs after 2004. Note that BLS government employment data estimates are based on sample surveys, and do not tally exactly with government payroll data). Jurriaan
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