State Government Employment in Tallahassee

State government employed an annual average of 36,250 people at 174 establishments in Leon County in 2025, up 502 jobs or 1.4 percent from 2024, according to the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (BLS QCEW Leon County 2025).

The state total in Leon County splits into two big blocks. Public administration agencies (NAICS 92) account for 23,936 state jobs at 160 establishments, and state colleges and universities for 11,439 jobs at 3 establishments (QCEW state government rows). The rest is a scatter of small state-run lines, from forestry support to a nature park, each under 200 jobs (QCEW).

The Leon County state government location quotient is 6.97, while the local, federal and private lines all sit below 1.00 (QCEW location quotients). BLS says QCEW tabulates establishments, monthly employment and quarterly wages for workers covered by state unemployment insurance laws (BLS QCEW overview).

The largest state public administration line in Leon County is administration of human resource programs (NAICS 923130), with 3,602 jobs in 2025, followed by regulation and licensing of commercial sectors (926150) with 3,212 (BLS QCEW Leon County).

Below the top ten, Leon County's state file lists corrections with 1,024 jobs, agricultural marketing and commodity regulation with 895, other justice and public order work with 783, legislative bodies with 760, state courts with 691 and conservation programs with 617 (QCEW). Executive offices, NAICS 921110, are a small line at 220 jobs in one establishment (QCEW).

BLS says a State workforce agency assigns an industrial code to each establishment from the employer's own description, and a government employer with different activities at various establishments gets separate codes for each; the Leon County file names no agency (BLS QCEW overview).

Regulation and licensing of commercial sectors is the most concentrated state public administration line in Leon County, with an employment location quotient of 53.68 in 2025 (BLS QCEW location quotients).

Several small state-owned lines outside public administration in Leon County also show very high quotients: computer facilities management (541513) at 46.20 with 146 jobs, direct property and casualty insurance (524126) at 33.84 with 144 jobs, and services for the elderly and persons with disabilities (624120) at 32.37 with 172 jobs (QCEW). Within public administration, other justice and public order activities stand at 24.46, agricultural marketing regulation at 24.13 and legislative bodies at 23.96 (QCEW).

A high quotient can sit on a small line: the Leon County computer facilities management line has 146 jobs, while the much larger human resource programs line, with 3,602 jobs, has a quotient of 14.48 (QCEW).

State government jobs in Leon County paid an average of $67,647 in 2025, against $101,157 for federal jobs, $59,548 for local government and $64,017 in the private sector (BLS QCEW Leon County).

Pay varies widely by function inside the state total. Legislative bodies averaged $83,097 and the state college and university line $78,165, while public health programs averaged $54,286 and administration of human resource programs $57,965 (QCEW). The average weekly wage across all Leon County state government jobs was $1,301 (QCEW).

BLS says QCEW classifies establishments by industry under NAICS; the Leon County file carries no job titles (BLS QCEW overview).

The Florida Department of State's agency address list gives a Tallahassee address for most executive agencies, including Revenue at 5050 West Tennessee Street, Transportation at 605 Suwannee Street and Children and Families at 1317 Winewood Boulevard (State Agency Addresses).

Esplanade Way is a cluster on that list: Management Services at 4050, Elder Affairs at 4040, Offender Review at 4070, the Commission on Human Relations at 4075 and the Agency for Persons With Disabilities at 4030 (State Agency Addresses). Not every agency is in Tallahassee: the same list places the Department of Citrus in Bartow, Military Affairs in St. Augustine and Veterans' Affairs in Largo (State Agency Addresses).

The BLS Economy at a Glance series for the Tallahassee metro shows government jobs at 60.5 thousand in August 2026 (preliminary), after 64.4 thousand in March and a low of 59.5 thousand in July (BLS Economy at a Glance, Tallahassee).

The same table puts the August 2026 government figure 0.7 percent below August 2025, and every month from March to August shows a year over year decline, ranging from 0.7 to 2.0 percent (BLS). BLS footnotes the series as a number of jobs in thousands, not seasonally adjusted, and the row is labeled Government for the Tallahassee metro, not state government (BLS footnotes).

Tallahassee was chosen as the capital of Florida in 1824, primarily because it was the midway point between St. Augustine and Pensacola, according to the Florida Department of State (The Capitol, Florida Department of State).

In 1972 the Legislature authorized money for a new Capitol Complex with House and Senate chambers and offices, and a twenty-two-story executive office building was completed in 1977 (The Capitol). State law, section 110.201(5) of the Florida Statutes, directs the department, which section 110.107 defines as the Department of Management Services (Section 110.107), to develop a workforce report with data representative of the state's human resources and to submit it annually to the Governor, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House (Section 110.201, Florida Statutes). The county-level detail on this page comes from the federal QCEW file instead, because that file breaks state jobs down by function inside Leon County.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the state government ownership rows of the 2025 Leon County QCEW file, the August 2026 BLS metro table, the Department of State agency address list and section 110.201.