This is a list of countries by public sector size, calculated as the number of public sector employees as a percentage of the total workforce.
Information is based mainly on data from the OECD[1][2][3] and the ILO.
In the former Eastern Bloc countries, the public sector in 1989 accounted for between 70% and over 90% of total employment.
[5] In China a full 78.3% of the urban labor force were employed in the public sector by 1978, the year the Chinese economic reform was launched, after which the rates dropped.
[7][8][9] In OECD countries, the average public sector employment rate was 21.3% in 2013.