State and local governments aren’t hiring at nearly the same pace as the private sector is, but at least they’re still hiring, unlike the federal government, according to data from a just-released study from Gallup.

State and local governments are continuing to grow, but the federal government is shrinking.

Net federal hiring has been contracting for a while now, but the pace of contraction increased significantly in June and July, likely because of sequestration, the automatic government spending cuts that kicked in at the beginning of March this year.

According to Gallup:

Although the automatic spending cuts went into effect in early March, likely resulting in a heightened perception among federal workers that hiring was down that month, it is possible that the pace of furloughs and layoffs increased in July as federal agencies moved to implement the staffing component of budget cuts.

Here’s a look at the Gallup data:

federal jobs-01
The federal workforce has been contracting at a faster pace since the sequester kicked in. IBTimes/Lisa Mahapatra
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