There's a better way to get the number of rows from the MySQL server. Instead of running the full query twice, once with limit and once without, just run a count on the MySQL side instead of the PHP side. For example :
Get the results set
$results = mysql_query("select * from employees limit $offset, $limiter",$db);
Get a result set with the number
$numresults = mysql_query("select count(id) from employees",$db);
$numfound = mysql_result($numresults,0);
This cuts down on overhead. You can use all your standard where clauses in the query for the count. The only real difference is deleting the limit argument and changing your field selections to count(some_field). And I THINK that count() will use your indexes, so use an indexed field in count(). Other than that, it can be any field in your query.
