The job growth that accompanied President Bush’s successful re-election campaign was fueled in part by state and local governments, which hired a quarter of the workers added to American payrolls since June.

“The turnaround in state and local government budgets has made a difference” in the American job market, said the chief economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., John Silvia. “It’s real job growth. It’s a sign of strength.”

Economic gains, especially in the South, and the resulting higher tax revenue allowed local officials to hire more teachers and police officers after a 15-month slump following the 2001 recession.

However, Indiana was the only Northern state among the top hirers. New York lost 61,800 government jobs, while California lost 95,400 since June. The governments of both states froze hiring this year to limit spending.

States and cities in the rest of the country added 198,000 workers in the four months through October, twice the rate of increase over the past decade, according to government statistics.

“When the recession hit, states and localities suffered a fiscal crunch,” said Barry Bosworth, director of the President’s Council on Wage and Price Stability during the Jimmy Carter administration and now a senior economist at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington. “Now, with the economy expanding, they’re short of workers and they need to hire.”

A November 5 report showing American employers added 337,000 workers in October, the most in seven months, spurred optimism among some economists that corporate hiring also may accelerate. Productivity rose at a 1.9% annual rate in the third quarter, the slowest in two years and a sign companies needed to add workers.

Braintree, Mass., is hiring police again after losing a quarter of its force in two years because of budget cutbacks following the 2001 recession.

“We’ve had our resources stripped down to next to nothing,” said Deputy Police Chief Russell Jenkins. The local economy “is a little better” now, and the department is hiring 12 cops this year and bringing the force back to 72 officers after leaving 20 jobs unfilled last year, he said.

State tax revenues rose 11% to $145.4 billion in the second quarter from the same period a year ago, the biggest gain since April-June 2000, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y. Higher taxes accounted for $2.7 billion of the gain.

Government at all levels cut 97,000 workers in the 15 months through June as tax receipts fell. The federal government, beset by a record $412.6 billion deficit in fiscal 2004, is still trimming payrolls. Federal job cuts have averaged 2,000 a month since 1989 and federal payrolls, at 2.7 million in September, were the lowest since 1966.

“Employment in state governments fell by about 60,000 from 2.8 million workers at its peak in January of 2000 to the summer of 2003, but it’s come up about 25,000 gradually since then,” said the managing director of Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Princeton, N.J., Raymond W. Stone. “It’s a consequence of the recession and its impact on state flows.”

Expanding state and local governments, especially in Southern states where Mr. Bush’s support was strongest, have more than made up federal losses, adding 49,250 jobs a month since June, compared with 22,000 a month over the past 15 years.

States, school boards, cities, and counties employ about 85% of the nation’s 21.6 million government workers, making local government a bigger employer than manufacturing, retailing, banking, or any other private industry.

“In places where the population is growing, you’ve got to add teachers, firefighters, and police,” said the head of state and local government credit ratings at Standard & Poor’s in New York, Steven Murphy. “Certain service demands aren’t a choice. Those are the kinds of services where we’re seeing hiring.”

That is the case in places such as Las Vegas; Raleigh, N.C.; and Sarasota, Fla. The Sarasota County Public Schools will add 313 teachers this year to keep up with growing enrollment and a state law that requires the district to limit class size.

The Wake County, N.C., Public School System hired teachers this year to accommodate an influx of 5,400 new students. The Clark County, Nev., Public Schools added 2,000 teachers this year, up from 1,600 in 2003.

“Education is generally a growth industry,” said Julie Hatch, a Labor Department economist who tracks government hiring. “It takes a lot of out side pressure to slow it.”

Education hiring at both the state and local level accounted for 170,200 jobs added in the three months through September. The figures are seasonally adjusted.

Schools are adding workers because enrollments are growing. Elementary and secondary school enrollment grew 11% over the past decade, according to the National Education Association in Washington. The number of teachers has surged 21% over that time, as states pushed school districts to cut class sizes.

The increased hiring isn’t happening in all states. Nine of the 10 biggest government payroll gains in the three months through September were in Southern states, such as Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Texas, and Georgia. Florida added 81,100 public sector jobs, while Arizona gained 33,000.