Government Jobs Outlook

Government Occupations: Jobs in government, local and state, run the gamut. Firefighters and law enforcement workers constitute the majority of local government jobs. Transportation, education, utilities and healthcare also fall in this category.

Education: Most jobs require an associate's degree or a bachelor's degree.

Scope: In addition to the 50 state governments, there are about 87,500 local governments, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Illinois had the most local government units, with more than 6,900; Hawaii had the fewest, with 20. State and local governments, excluding education and hospitals, employed about 7.9 million people in 2004.

Federal government jobs have a low growth projvection of 1.6%, while state/local government jobs should grow 11.3% by 2014. These are the lowest rate increases of any job sector. So, which government jobs are still hot? As always, police and sheriff's patrol officers are the ''it'' government jobs to have.

• Government Jobs Outlook