What percentage of Americans work for the government?

What percentage of Americans work for the government? (including the federal, state, county, city, even school district levels together)

For example, all of the following are people who earn a living, and get their paychecks, from the government:

-all elected officials and their staffs
-every member of the U.S. military
-every police officer
-everyone who manages prisons
-everyone who works for government departments at all levels (a few random examples: FBI, CDC, NASA)
-most college professors
-most school teachers
-government lawyers & inspectors
-and, for all of the above, everyone else who works to maintain the facilities and equipment that everyone above needs (such as janitors, secretaries, etc.)

That's a lot of people! (Who am I missing? I know I'm missing some people here.)

I grew up thinking that the majority of jobs in the U.S. were from the private sector, but it seems as if a majority may in fact be from the public sector. Does anyone know?


[edit on 10/31/2004 by ThunderCloud]