Public Sector Employment as a percentage of Total Employment varies widely among OCED countries according to a working paper published by the OECD. The Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark have the highest general government employment at close to 30% based on 2021 data. Japan and South Korea have the lowest government employment at less than 10% of total employment.
Among the OECD countries in the EU, Germany and the Netherlands have the lowest government employment at under 13%. The OECD average was about 18.6% in 2021. The US figure is lower than the OECD average at about 15% but higher than South Korea, Japan, Italy, etc.
The following chart shows Public Sector Employment as a percentage of Total Employment in OECD Countries based on the latest data available:
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Source: Size and composition of public employment: data sources, methods and gaps, Working Paper, OECD
However Federal employees account for about 20% of the total government employees in the US. This shows that most of the government levels are in other levels of government like the state, country, city, etc.
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Source: Size and composition of public employment: data sources, methods and gaps, Working Paper, OECD
It remains to be seen if public sector employment would decline significantly under the plans proposed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy of DOGE in the upcoming Trump administration.
