The scope of the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses was expanded with the 2008 survey to cover a more complete section of the U.S. economy: state and local government workers. Prior to the publication of the 2008 survey results, data users commonly requested information about industries in the public sector. Estimates covering nearly 18.5 million state and local government workers show that these public sector employees experienced a higher incidence rate of work-related injuries and illnesses than their private industry counterparts.This Spotlight on Statistics compares characteristics of injury and illness cases in state and local government with those in private industry, highlighting incidence rate trends in selected state and local government industries and examining injury and illness rates and cases that occurred in state and local government workplaces in 2011.