The Federal Workforce: Characteristics and Trends

The Federal Workforce: Characteristics and
Trends
Curtis W. Copeland
Specialist in American National Government
April 19, 2011
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
RL34685
CRS Report for Congress
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repared for Members and Committees of Congress

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The Federal Workforce: Characteristics and Trends

Summary
Understanding the characteristics and trends of the federal workforce is important because,
among other things, agencies accomplish their missions via that workforce. Total personnel costs
(direct compensation and benefits) for all current and retired civilian and military federal
employees were estimated at nearly $590 billion in 2010. Current non-postal civilian personnel
costs in the executive branch alone were estimated at nearly $230 billion. According to Office of
Personnel Management’s FedScope database, three Cabinet departments—the Departments of
Defense (DOD), Veterans Affairs (DVA), and Homeland Security (DHS)—accounted for about
60% of the 2.1 million executive branch civilian employees in December 2010. The duty stations
for more than 35% of these employees were in four states (California, Virginia, Texas, and
Maryland) and the District of Columbia, and DOD was the top federal employer in most states.
DOD also employed more than 90% of federal civilian employees in foreign countries, and was
the top federal employer in U.S. territories. The federal workforce grew by more than 350,000
employees between 2000 (the low point during the last 12 years) and 2010, with the growth
concentrated in homeland security-related agencies, DOD, DVA, and the Department of Health
and Human Services. Civilian employment in other departments and agencies has declined since
1998 (the first year in which FedScope data are available). Legislation has been introduced in the
112th Congress (H.R. 657) that attempts to reduce the size of the federal workforce, but the
legislation exempts DOD, DVA, and DHS.
The number of employees in blue-collar and clerical federal jobs declined between 1998 and
2010, but the number of employees in professional and administrative jobs increased during this
period. The percentage of the federal workforce that was made up of minorities also increased,
but the percentage that was women declined slightly. Although women and minorities represented
an increasing portion of the growing professional and administrative groups, the representation of
women and minorities in the Senior Executive Service was less than their presence in the overall
workforce. The federal workforce was somewhat older in 2010 than it was in 1998, but the
average length of service declined from 15.2 years in 1998 to 13.5 years in 2010. The number of
white-collar employees in the General Schedule pay system declined between 1998 and 2010,
while the number of employees in single-agency pay systems increased (from 3.3% of the
workforce in 1998 to 15.4% in 2010). The average salary of the workforce was $74,817 in 2010,
but average salaries varied substantially between and within federal agencies and pay systems.
Most of the highest paid employees work in a few agencies and occupations.
Although the federal workforce has grown somewhat in recent years, a 2006 study estimated that
the “hidden” federal workforce of contractors and grantees grew by more than 50% between 1999
and 2005, when it reportedly included more than 10.5 million jobs in 2005. That figure is almost
four times as large as the combined total of all three branches of government and the U.S. Postal
Service. Additional data on the contractor workforce may be available soon.
This report will be updated when September 2011 data for the federal workforce become
available.


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The Federal Workforce: Characteristics and Trends

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
Cost and Size of the Federal Workforce................................................................................. 1
Federal Civilian Employment Data.............................................................................................. 4
Federal Civilian Employment by Agency .............................................................................. 5
Federal Civilian Employment by Location ............................................................................ 6
Changes in the Size of the Federal Civilian Workforce .......................................................... 9
Pending Legislation ...................................................................................................... 11
Types of Appointments and Work Schedules ....................................................................... 12
The Arrival and Departure of Federal Employees ................................................................ 12
Separations ................................................................................................................... 13
Changes in Federal Occupational Categories ....................................................................... 14
Changes in the Demographic Characteristics of the Federal Civilian Workforce................... 15
Representation of Minorities and Women ...................................................................... 15
Age and Length of Service ............................................................................................ 17
Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Systems and Average Pay .................................................. 19
Average Salary Differences ........................................................................................... 20
Highest Paid Federal Employees ......................................................................................... 21
Summary Observations ............................................................................................................. 23

Figures
Figure 1. Federal Civilian Workforce, December 2010 ................................................................ 5
Figure 2. Size of the Federal Civilian Workforce, 1998 to 2010 ................................................. 10
Figure 3. Age Distribution of the Federal Civilian Workforce, September 1998 to
December 2010...................................................................................................................... 18
Figure 4. Years of Service Distribution of the Federal Civilian Workforce, 1998 to 2010 .......... 19

Tables
Table 1. Estimated Civilian and Military Personnel Compensation and Benefits, 2010................. 2
Table 2. Trends in Federal Civilian Employment, 1994 -2009...................................................... 3
Table 3. Number of Direct and Indirect Federal Contract and Grant Jobs, 1999 and 2005............. 4
Table 4. Number of Federal Civilian Employees by Department and Major Independent
Agency, December 2010 .......................................................................................................... 6
Table 5. States With Largest Number of Federal Civilian Employees (Duty Stations),
December 2010........................................................................................................................ 7
Table 6. Federal Civilian Employees in Foreign Countries and U.S. Territories by Major
Department or Agency, December 2010 ................................................................................... 8
Table 7. Federal Civilian Employees in Foreign Countries and U.S. Territories by Major
Countries and Territories, December 2010................................................................................ 8
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Table 8. Federal Civilian Workforce: September 1998 and December 2010 ............................... 11
Table 9. Federal Employees’ Type of Appointment and Work Schedule, December 2010 .......... 12
Table 10. Type of Federal Hiring by Type of Position, FY2010.................................................. 13
Table 11. Type of Separation From Federal Service by Type of Position, FY2010 ...................... 14
Table 12. Occupational Categories in the Federal Civilian Workforce, September 1998
and December 2010 ............................................................................................................... 14
Table 13. Percentage of the Federal Civilian Workforce, Women and Minorities,
September 1998 and December 2010 ..................................................................................... 15
Table 14. Percentage of Federal Civilian Workforce Categories That Were Women,
September 1998 and December 2010 ..................................................................................... 16
Table 15. Percentage of Federal Civilian Workforce Categories That Were Minorities,
September 1998 and December 2010 ..................................................................................... 16
Table 16. Percentage of the Federal Civilian Workforce and the Senior Executive Service
That Were Women and Minorities, December 2010 ................................................................ 17
Table 17. Employees in Major Federal Civilian Pay Systems, September 1998 and
December 2010...................................................................................................................... 20
Table 18. Average Salaries for Selected Federal Departments and Agencies, December
2010 ...................................................................................................................................... 21
Table 19. Employees With Annual Salaries of $150,000 or More, by Department or
Agency, December 2010 ........................................................................................................ 22

Contacts
Author Contact Information ...................................................................................................... 24

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Introduction
The responsibilities of the federal government are carried out through its workforce, so
understanding the characteristics and trends of that workforce is a critical part of understanding
how the federal government can better accomplish its various missions. As the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) said in May 2008,
The importance of a top-notch federal workforce cannot be overstated. The nation is facing
new and more complex challenges in the 21st century as various forces are reshaping the
United States and its place in the world.... To address these challenges, it will be important
for federal agencies to change their cultures and create the institutional capacity to become
high-performing organizations. This includes recruiting and retaining employees able to
create, sustain, and thrive in organizations that are flatter, results-oriented, and externally
focused and that collaborate with other governmental entities as well as with the private and
nonprofit sectors to achieve desired outcomes.1
In 2001, however, GAO identified the management of the federal workforce as a government-
wide “high-risk” area because federal agencies lacked a strategic approach to workforce
management that integrated those efforts with their missions and goals.2 Ten years later, strategic
human capital management remains on GAO’s high-risk list.3
Understanding the federal workforce is also important for a variety of other reasons. Personnel
costs for both current and former employees represent a substantial portion of many agencies’
budgets, and a significant portion of the total federal budget. Some federal agencies are major
employers in certain states, and tens of thousands of federal employees work outside of the
United States. The federal workforce is also expected by some to reflect the gender, racial, and
ethnic diversity of the country as a whole. In addition, understanding recent changes in the overall
size and composition of the federal workforce can indicate what changes may lie in the future.
Cost and Size of the Federal Workforce
Determining the size or cost of the federal workforce first requires a determination of what should
be considered “the federal workforce,” and what are considered relevant costs associated with
that workforce. Federal budget documents distinguish federal personnel costs in terms of (1)
direct compensation (e.g., salaries and bonuses) versus personnel benefits (e.g, health benefits
and life insurance), (2) civilian employees versus military employees, and (3) current employees
versus retired employees. The documents also show costs specific to the U.S. Postal Service and
the Department of Defense (DOD), and separately show costs for the legislative and judicial
branches of the federal government.
According to the FY2011 federal budget, and as shown in Table 1 below, total federal personnel
costs (i.e., direct compensation and benefits) in 2010 for all groups (i.e., civilian and military,
current employees, and retirees) were nearly $590 billion. Personnel costs (direct compensation

1 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Human Capital: Transforming Federal Recruiting and Hiring Efforts, GAO-
08-762T, May 8, 2008.
2 U.S. General Accounting Office, High Risk Series: An Update, GAO-01-263, January 2001.
3 U.S. Government Accountability Office, High Risk Series: An Update, GAO-11-278, February 2011.
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plus benefits) for current civilian employees (including all three branches of government and the
U.S. Postal Service) were nearly $295 billion. Current non-postal civilian personnel costs for just
the executive branch were nearly $230 billion, with DOD constituting about 30% of that total. In
comparison, personnel costs for the legislative and judicial branches were relatively small (just
under $7 billion combined). Personnel costs for employees of the U.S. Postal Service are almost
entirely funded by postal fees, not appropriations. Some federal regulatory agencies (e.g., the
Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Federal
Communications Commission) are also entirely or primarily funded through fees rather than
appropriations.
Table 1. Estimated Civilian and Military Personnel Compensation and Benefits, 2010
(millions of dollars)

Cost
Direct
Personnel
Total Personnel
Organizational/ Employee Grouping
Compensation
Benefits
Costs
Civilian Personnel Costs
Department of Defense (DOD)
$53,743
$15,560
$69,303
Executive Branch—Non-DOD
$114,182
$45,996
$160,178
Postal Service
$37,832
$20,384
$58,216
Legislative Branch
$2,181
$634
$2,815
Judicial Branch
$3,160
$1,000
$4,160
Total Civilian
$211,098
$83,574
$294,672
Military Personnel Costs
DOD $99,638
$50,891
$150,529
Other Uniformed Personnel
$3,088
$805
$3,893
Total Military
$102,726 $51,696 $154,422
Civilian and Military Personnel Costs
$313,824
$135,270
$447,046
Retiree Costs
Civilian $70,996 $9,686 $80,682
Military $51,095
$8,623 $59,718
Total Retiree
$122,091
$18,309
$140,400
Grand Total—Civilian and Military,
$435,915 $153,579 $589,494
Active and Retiree
Source: U.S. Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Budget of the U.S. Government:
Analytical Perspectives; Fiscal Year 2011, Table 11-4.
Note: “Personnel benefits” for retirees includes health benefits and (for civilian personnel) life insurance.
According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and as shown in Table 2 below, there
were more than 2.8 million employees in the total federal civilian workforce (all three branches
plus the U.S. Postal Service) in September 2009—down from nearly 3.0 million in September
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1994.4 From the beginning to the end of this period, the number of executive branch civilian
employees declined by about 135,000 employees, driven largely by reductions in the Department
of Defense (DOD, down more than 143,000 employees) and the U.S. Postal Service (down by
nearly 145,000).5 The number of legislative branch employees declined somewhat during this
period (down about 4,500 employees), while the number of judicial branch employees increased
somewhat (up about 5,700 employees).
Table 2. Trends in Federal Civilian Employment, 1994 -2009
(in thousands)

1994 1996 1998 2000 2002
2004 2006 2009
Legislative
Branch 35.4 31.5 30.5 31.2 30.9
30.0 29.4 30.9
Judicial
Branch 28.0 29.6 31.7 32.2 34.7
33.8 33.7 33.7
Executive
Branch 2,908.2 2,786.3 2,727.3 2,644.8 2,649.9
2,649.3 2,637.1 2,773.9
—DOD
879.9 795.9 717.9 676.3 670.2
668.2 675.7 736.6
—Non-DOD
1,205.6 1,138.1 1,137.9 1,107.8 1,168.1
1,213.5 1,203.9 1,359.3
—U.S. Postal
822.7 852.3 871.5 860.7 811.6
767.6 757.4 736.6
Service
Total
2,971.6 2,847.4 2,789.5 2,708.1 2,715.5 2,713.2 2,700.3 2,838.5
Source: OPM’s The Fact Book: 2005 Edition (p. 7) and 2007 Edition (p. 8), and Employment and Trends,
September 2009, Table 2.
These totals do not, however, include employees in the intelligence agencies, members of the
active armed forces, or members of the reserve forces. The data also do not include federal
contractors and grantees. The exact number of direct and indirect federal contract and grant jobs
is unknown, but Paul Light of New York University has estimated the total to be more than 10.5
million in 2005—more than twice as many as the combined total of all three branches of
government, the U.S. Postal Service, the intelligence agencies, the armed forces, and the Ready
Reserve.6 As Table 3 below shows, the estimated number of federal contract jobs increased by
more than 70% between 1999 and 2005 (from more than 4.4 million to more than 7.6 million)—a
change that was reportedly driven almost entirely by increased spending at DOD during this
period.7 The table also shows that, taken together, the number of federal contract and grant jobs
increased by more than 50% during this six-year period.

4 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, The Fact Book: 2005 Edition, p. 7, available at https://www.opm.gov/feddata/
factbook/2005/factbook2005.pdf. OPM has not published The Fact Book since 2005, so 2004 data are the most recent
available. Here and throughout this report, the number of employees reported is based on head counts of employees on
board as of a particular date. Federal budget documents and other sources sometimes use “full-time equivalent” or
“FTE” numbers, in which two employees working 20 hours per week are treated as one FTE.
5 For more information on the Postal Service, see CRS Report RS22864, U.S. Postal Service Workforce Size and
Employment Categories, 1990-2010, by Wendy Ginsberg.
6 Paul C. Light, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, The New True Size of
Government, August 2006. To view the study, see http://wagner.nyu.edu/performance/files/True_Size.pdf.
7 Ibid.
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Table 3. Number of Direct and Indirect Federal Contract and Grant Jobs, 1999 and
2005



Increase

1999
2005 Number
Percent
Federal contract jobs
4,441,000
7,634,000
3,193,000
71.9%
Federal grant jobs
2,527,000
2,892,000
365,000
14.4%
Total
6,968,000 10,526,000 3,558,000 51.1%
Source: Paul C. Light, The New True Size of Government, August 2006.
It is unclear whether the number of federal contractors has increased, decreased, or stayed the
same since 2005. In March 2009, President Barack Obama indicated that he planned to reduce the
cost of federal contracts by $40 billion per year, which could lead to a reduction in the number of
federal contractors.8 That same month, Congress enacted the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009
(P.L. 111-8, March 11, 2009), which included a provision (Section 752) requiring each executive
department and agency to submit a report to the Director of OMB within 120 days stating the size
of its workforce as of December 31, 2008, differentiating between civilian, military, and contract
workers. OMB was required to submit an aggregate report to Congress within 180 days after the
date of enactment. As of the date of this report, it is unclear whether the required report to
Congress has been completed.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117, December 16, 2009) contained a
similar provision (Section 743), directing each executive agency (other than DOD) required to
submit an inventory under the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-270) to
submit to OMB an annual inventory of service contracts awarded or extended after April 1, 2010.
The first report was due December 31, 2010, and was to include “the number and work location
of contractor and subcontractor employees, expressed as full-time equivalents for direct labor,
compensated under the contract.” On November 5, 2010, OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement
Policy sent a memorandum to agency chief acquisition officers and senior procurement
executives regarding these inventories, noting that they will be required to include the number of
contractors and first tier subcontractors beginning in FY2011.9
Federal Civilian Employment Data
OPM’s Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) is the most comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-
date database of federal executive branch employees, but it does not include information for
certain executive branch agencies (e.g., the intelligence agencies) and certain entities that are
sometimes considered part of the federal government (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service). It also does
not include contractors, grantees, members of the armed forces, reservists, federal employees in
the judicial branch, or most employees in the legislative branch.10

8 Richard Wolf, “Obama Seeks to End Abuses in Federal Contracting,” USA Today, March 4, 2009.
9 See http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/procurement/memo/service-contract-inventories-guidance-
11052010.pdf for a copy of this memorandum.
10 Specifically, CPDF coverage of the executive branch currently includes all agencies except the Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, Foreign Service personnel at
(continued...)
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The data provided in the remainder of this report focus on civilian employees in executive branch
departments and agencies. Unless otherwise noted, the data are drawn from OPM’s “FedScope”
website (http://www.fedscope.opm.gov), which is based on the CPDF. According to FedScope, in
December 2010, there were 2,112,277 employees in the federal agencies that the CPDF covers.
Federal Civilian Employment by Agency
As Figure 1 and Table 4 below show, DOD was by far the largest federal agency in December
2010 (771,614 civilian employees), followed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA,
312,878 employees) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS, 191,197 employees).
These three Cabinet departments accounted for 60.4% of the 2.1 million federal civilian
workforce. More than 91% of federal civilian employees worked in the 15 Cabinet departments.
Among independent federal agencies (i.e., those agencies that are not part of a Cabinet
department), nearly 64% of employees (120,641 of 188,578) were in four agencies: the Social
Security Administration (SSA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the General Services Administration (GSA).
Figure 1. Federal Civilian Workforce, December 2010
Independent
agencies, 8.9%
All other cabinet
departments,
30.7%
DOD, 36.6%
DHS, 9.1%
DVA, 14.8%

Source: OPM’s FedScope database.

(...continued)
the State Department, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence, the Office of the Vice President, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the Tennessee
Valley Authority, the U.S. Postal Service, and the White House Office. Also excluded are the Public Health Service’s
Commissioned Officer Corps, non-appropriated fund employees, and foreign nationals overseas. The legislative branch
is limited to the Government Printing Office, the U.S. Tax Court, and selected commissions.
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Table 4. Number of Federal Civilian Employees by Department and Major
Independent Agency, December 2010
Department/Agency
Number of Civilian Employees
Cabinet Departments
Department of Defense
771,614
Department of Veterans Affairs
312,878
Department of Homeland Security
191,197
Department of Justice
118,104
Department of the Treasury
112,541
Department of Agriculture
98,235
Department of Health and Human Services
83,745
Department of the Interior
72,168
Department of Transportation
58,189
Department of Commerce
45,348
Department of Energy
16,651
Department of Labor
16,554
Department of State
12,086
Department of Housing and Urban Development
9,818
Department of Education
4,611
Subtotal: Al Cabinet departments
1,923,739
Independent Agencies
Social Security Administration
70,270
Environmental Protection Agency
18,737
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
18,732
General Services Administration
12,902
Al other independent agencies
67,897
Total
2,112,277
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Federal Civilian Employment by Location
As of December 2010, about 97.5% of federal civilian employees worked in the United States. As
shown in Table 5 below, more than 35% of federal civilian employees’ duty stations (757,377 of
2,112,277) were in the District of Columbia and four states (California, Virginia, Texas, and
Maryland). DOD had the largest number of federal employees in most of the states, and the
department had the second-highest number of employees in most of the other states. DVA was the
most common second-largest federal employer in the states. Other federal departments or
agencies with large numbers of employees in certain states included DHS (with more than 10,000
employees in five states, including more than 20,000 in both California and Texas); the
Department of Justice (DOJ, with more than 25,000 employees in the District of Columbia); and
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, with more than 37,000 employees in
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Maryland). Among independent agencies, the Social Security Administration was the largest and
most ubiquitous, with nearly 13,000 employees in Maryland and more than 1,000 employees in
many other states.
Table 5. States With Largest Number of Federal Civilian Employees (Duty Stations),
December 2010
State
Federal Civilian Employees
Major Federal Employer(s)
District of Columbia
169,809
DOJ (25,026)
California 169,046
DOD
(63.315)
DVA (25,222)
DHS (22,268)
Virginia 147,152
DOD
(95,005)
Texas 141,500
DOD
(50,993)
DHS (25,138)
DVA (22,248
Maryland 129,870
DOD
(38,941)
HHS (37,213)
Florida 89,708
DOD
(30,020)
DVA (23,139)
Georgia 80,751
DOD
(38,528)
Pennsylvania 70,003
DOD
(26,592)
New York
61.751
DVA (18,006)
Washington 57,350
DOD
(29,009)
Ohio 53,478
DOD
(26,321)
Illinois
51,241 DOD
(15,317)
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Note: The table includes all states with at least 50,000 federal employees, and shows the largest federal
employers in those states. For security purposes, FedScope does not provide detailed location information for
certain agencies (e.g., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the U.S. Secret
Service). Employees of these agencies that work in the Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV Metropolitan Statistical
Area are all reported as working in the District of Columbia. Other employees are reported as “Suppressed” (a
total of 32,000 in the Department of Justice). As a result, FedScope somewhat overstates employment for the
District of Columbia and understates employment for all states, territories, and foreign countries.
As of December 2010, 37,337 federal civilian employees worked in foreign countries, 15,188
employees worked in U.S. territories, and 1,086 employees worked in “unspecified” locations.11
As Table 6 below shows, nearly 85% of federal civilian employees in foreign countries worked
for DOD, with DHS and the Agency for International Development (AID) a distant second and
third, respectively. DOD employees in foreign countries most commonly worked for the
Department of the Army (12,610 employees) or in DOD “Education Activity” (10,059
employees).

11 These data do not include certain agencies or employees in certain agencies (e.g., the intelligence agencies and
Foreign Service personnel in the Department of State).
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Nearly 75% of federal employees in U.S. territories worked for DOD, DVA, or DHS. Within
DOD, most employees worked for the Department of the Navy (1,412 employees), Department of
the Army (1,338 employees), or in DOD “Education Activity” (937 employees). Within DHS,
most employees worked for either the Transportation Security Administration (TSA, 963
employees) or the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (990 employees).
Table 6. Federal Civilian Employees in Foreign Countries and U.S. Territories by
Major Department or Agency, December 2010

Number of Federal Civilian Employees Working
in Foreign
in U.S.
Outside the United
Department or Agency
Countries
Territories
States
DOD 33,147
4,451
37,598
DVA 19
3,943
3,962
DHS 979
2,940
3,919
International Development Cooperation
1,901 0 1,901
Agency
USDA 186
758
944
Treasury 73
732
805
Al other departments and agencies
1,032
2,364
3,396
Total 37,337
15,188
52,525
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Note: FedScope does not include Foreign Service personnel in the Department of State.
Although there was at least one federal civilian employee in more than 160 foreign countries,
Table 7 below shows that nearly 80% of these employees worked in four countries—Germany,
Japan, Korea, and Italy. In these countries, 99% of the employees worked for DOD. Federal
employment in U.S. territories is even more stratified, with 75% of employees in those areas
working in Puerto Rico and 93% working in either Puerto Rico or Guam. In Puerto Rico, the
major agencies are DVA (3,891 employees), DOD (2,162 employees), and DHS (2,117
employees). In the other territories, certain agencies tend to dominate (e.g., 2,153 of 2,762
employees in Guam are in DOD, and 374 of 724 employees in the Virgin Islands are in DHS).
Table 7. Federal Civilian Employees in Foreign Countries and U.S. Territories by
Major Countries and Territories, December 2010

Federal Civilian Employees
Country/Territory Number
Percent
of
Total
Foreign Countries
Germany 14,655
41.8%
Japan 7,157
20.4%
Korea 3,456
9.9%
Italy 2,583
7.4%
United Kingdom
1,679
4.8%
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Federal Civilian Employees
Country/Territory Number
Percent
of
Total
Afghanistan 586
1.7%
Belgium 704
2.0%
Al other countries
4,236
12.1%
Total in foreign countries
37,377
100.0%
U.S. Territories
Puerto Rico
11,395
75.0%
Guam 2,762
18.2%
Virgin Islands
724
4.8%
Al other territories
307
2.0%
Total in U.S. territories
15,188
100.0%
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Changes in the Size of the Federal Civilian Workforce
As Figure 2 below indicates, the executive branch civilian workforce became somewhat smaller
between 1998 (the first year for which FedScope data are available) and 2000, but has grown
since 2000. As of December 2010, the workforce had more than 300,000 more employees than it
had in September 1998, and nearly 350,000 more employees than it had in September 2000. As
mentioned previously, though, the number of federal contractors is believed to have increased
much more substantially during this period, growing by more than 3 million workers between
1999 and 2005 (from more than 4.4 million to more than 7.6 million).12

12 Paul C. Light, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, The New True Size of
Government, August 2006.
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Figure 2. Size of the Federal Civilian Workforce, 1998 to 2010
2,200,000
2,112,227
2,100,000
ees 2,000,000
l Employ 1,900,000
ra
1,810,341
1,800,000
of Fede
1,700,000
mber
u
N
1,600,000
1,500,000
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Year

Source: OPM’s FedScope database. Data for 1998 through 2009 are as of September 30; data for 2010 are as of
December 31.
Several federal departments and agencies were created or substantially reorganized between 1998
and 2010, so tracking changes over time by department or agency must take those changes into
account. For example, before DHS was created in 2003, several of its bureaus were parts of other
Cabinet departments (e.g., the U.S. Coast Guard was in the Department of Transportation, the
U.S. Customs Service was in the Department of the Treasury, and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service was in the Department of Justice).
With that caveat, Table 8 below shows the number of employees in the major departments and
agencies in September 1998 and December 2010. As the table shows, some of the agencies that
were unconnected to the creation of DHS became larger during this period (e.g., HHS, DVA, and
DOD), and some became smaller (e.g., the Department of Agriculture and SSA).
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Table 8. Federal Civilian Workforce: September 1998 and December 2010
Department/Agency September
1998
December
2010
Change
Department of Agriculture
107,709
98,235
(9,474)
(8.8%)
Department of Commerce
38,933
45,348
6,415
16.5%
Department of Defense
710,412
771,614
61,202
8.6%
Department of Justice
122,580
118,104
(4,476)
(3.7%)
Department of Labor
15,946
16,554
608
3.8%
Department of Energy
16,148
16,651
503
3.1%
Department of Education
4,833
4,611
(222)
(4.6%)
Department of Health and Human Services
58,261
83,745
25,484
43.7%
Department of Homeland Security
(Did not exist)
191,197
—
—
Department of Housing and Urban Development
9,984
9,818
(166)
(1.7%)
Department of the Interior
73,038
72,168
(870)
(1.2%)
Department of State
15,637
12,086
(3,551)
(22.7%)
Department of Transportation
64,858
58,189
(6,669)
(10.3%)
Department of the Treasury
141,966
112,541
(29,425)
(20.7%)
Department of Veterans Affairs
240,846
312,878
72,032
29.9%
EPA
19,242
18,737
(505)
(2.6%)
GSA 14,221
12,902
(1,319)
(9.3%)
NASA 19,207
18,732
(475)
(2.5%)
SSA 65,629
70,270
4,641
7.1%
Al other independent agencies
70,891
67,897
(2,994)
(4.2%)
Total 1,810,341
2,112,277
301,936
16.7%
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Note: Negative changes are in parentheses.
Pending Legislation
Legislation has been introduced in the 112th Congress that attempts to reduce the size of the
federal workforce. The Federal Workforce Reduction Act of 2011 (H.R. 657) would generally
prohibit the head of an executive agency from appointing any individual to a position in the
agency for which the Director of OMB projects a federal budget deficit. The legislation would
also set the number of positions in the federal workforce hiring pool (to be established by the
President) at zero as of the first day of FY2012, after which the number is required to (1) increase
by .50 for each full time-equivalent position in any agency which subsequently becomes vacant;
and (2) decrease by 1.0 for each request for a full time-equivalent position that is approved by the
President. The bill would exempt DOD, DHS, and DVA from these requirements.
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Types of Appointments and Work Schedules
As Table 9 below indicates, almost 90% of federal employees in December 2010 were full-time,
permanent employees (which was about the same percentage as in September 1998). About 5% of
federal employees were full-time, nonpermanent; nearly 3% were not full-time, permanent; and
3.3% were not full-time, nonpermanent.13
Table 9. Federal Employees’ Type of Appointment and Work Schedule,
December 2010

Type of Appointment
Work Schedule
Permanent
Non-permanent
Unspecified
Total
Full-time 1,874,548
105,992
96
1,980,636
Not Full-time
62,471
69,145
0
131,616
Unspecified 3 3
19
25
Total 1,937,022
175,140
115
2,112,277
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
The Cabinet departments with the largest percentage of non-permanent employees were the
Departments of Health and Human Services (27.8%), State (23.6%), and Interior (20.2%). Large
independent agencies with large percentages of non-permanent employees were the U.S. Agency
for International Development (50.1%), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (36.6%), the
National Archives and Records Administration (21.2%), and the Small Business Administration.
The departments and agencies with the largest percentage of employees working less than a full-
time schedule included OPM (20.3%), HHS (19.1%), and the Department of Commerce (17.5%).
There were also substantial variations within these departments and agencies. For example,
within the Department of Commerce, almost half (46.7%) of Census Bureau employees worked
less than full-time; rates for the other parts of the department were less than 8%.14
The Arrival and Departure of Federal Employees
In each of the last several years, more than 300,000 employees joined federal agencies. These
“accessions” may be divided into two main groups—employees who transferred into the agencies

13 The “non-permanent” category mainly consists of excepted service Schedule A and Schedule B employees.
According to OPM, Schedule A appointing authorities “describe special jobs and situations for which it is impractical
to use standard qualification requirements and to rate applicants using traditional competitive procedures.” For
example, agencies must use a Schedule A exception to hire attorneys because, by law, OPM cannot develop
qualification standards or examinations for attorney jobs. OPM says Schedule B authorities “also apply to jobs and
situations for which it is impractical to rate applicants using competitive procedures. However, under Schedule B
authorities applicants must meet the qualification standards for the job. For example, Schedule B includes hiring
authorities for the Student Temporary Employment Program, the Student Career Experience Program, and the Federal
Career Intern Program. Only students qualify for student programs; it is not practical to use competitive procedures for
them.” For more information, see https://www.opm.gov/Strategic_Management_of_Human_Capital/fhfrc/
FLX05020.asp#itemA1. The “not full time” category mainly includes intermittent and part-time seasonal and
nonseasonal employees.
14 Most of the Census Bureau employees working less than full time were intermittent and part-time non-seasonal
employees in the 0303 “Miscellaneous Clerk and Assistant” occupational series.
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from other federal agencies (either through individual or mass actions) and new hires. Each year,
transfers are typically less than 10% of all accessions.15 For example, in FY2010, 14,003 (4.6%)
of the 305,078 accessions were either individual or mass transfers. The remaining 291,075
accessions were new hires.
In FedScope, new hires are divided into competitive selections, excepted service appointments,16
and selections for the Senior Executive Service (SES). As Table 10 below indicates, in FY2010,
most new federal hires (54.4%) were into excepted service positions, not through the competitive
selection process. The table also shows that almost half of federal hiring in FY2010 (144,475 of
291,075) was for other than full-time permanent employment.
Table 10. Type of Federal Hiring by Type of Position, FY2010

Type of Hiring
Excepted
Senior
Type of Position
Competitive
Service
Executive Service
Total
Full-time permanent
89,006
56,949
375
146,330
Not ful -time permanent
43,367
101,347
31
144,475
Total 132,373
158,296
406
291,075
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Among the 146,330 full-time permanent hires, 89,006 (60.8%) were hired through the
competitive selection process and 56,949 (38.9%) were hired into excepted service positions.
Some agencies were more prone to hire full-time, permanent employees without using the
competitive selection process than others. For example, in FY2010, 100% of TSA hires and
67.2% of hires in the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection were into excepted service
positions.17
Separations
In each of the last several years, more than 200,000 employees separated from federal agencies in
one of two ways—through transfers to other agencies (either through individual or mass actions)
or via separations from federal service. As was the case with accessions, transfers typically
account for less than 10% of all separations each year. For example, in FY2010, 21,609 (9.5%) of
the 228,540 separations were either individual or mass transfers. The remaining 206,931
separations in FY2010 were separations from federal service.

15 The exception to this trend in recent years was in 2003, when more than 162,000 employees were mass transferred
when DHS was created, including 67,958 at TSA, 37,416 at the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and
24,239 at the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.
16 Certain positions are excepted from competitive service by law, by executive order, or by OPM on the grounds that
competitive examinations for such positions are not appropriate or impracticable (e.g., attorneys, medical doctors, and
students under certain temporary employment programs).
17 Several agencies have been granted broad excepted service hiring authority, including TSA, DHS, DVA, the
Government Accountability Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. See http://www.makingthedifference.org/
federaljobs/exceptedservice.shtml for a list of the major excepted service agencies.
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Separations from the federal service may be divided into employees who quit, retire, are
terminated/removed, die, are separated through a reduction-in-force (RIF), or have some other
type of separation. As Table 11 below shows, the most common forms of separation from the
federal service in FY2010 were removals/terminations (37.0% of all separations from federal
service), followed by quits (35.9%), and retirements (25.4%). However, when considering only
full-time, permanent employees, retirements were most common (53.1% of all separations from
federal service) followed by quits (33.6%). Almost 88% of all removals/terminations involved
employees who were not full-time, permanent employees.
Table 11. Type of Separation From Federal Service by Type of Position, FY2010

Type of Separation from the Federal Service
RIF/
Type of Position
Quit
Retire
Removal
Death
Other Total
Full-time permanent
32,186
50,847
9,507
2,869
317
95,726
Not ful -time permanent
42,036
1,709
67,003
346
111
111,205
Total
74,222
52,556 76,510 3,215 428 206,931
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Changes in Federal Occupational Categories
Federal occupations vary widely, from pipefitting to psychology.18 At the broadest level, federal
occupations are categorized as blue-collar and white-collar, and the white-collar occupations may
be grouped into five general categories: professional, administrative, technical, clerical, and
other.19 Table 12 below shows the distribution of federal employees in these categories in
September 1998 and December 2010. The table shows that the number of employees working in
blue-collar and clerical occupations declined substantially during this period (down 15.3% and
27.6%, respectively), while the number working in professional and administrative occupations
increased substantially (up 21.7% and 45.0%, respectively). The number of employees in
technical occupations increased slightly (up 7.1%).
Table 12. Occupational Categories in the Federal Civilian Workforce, September
1998 and December 2010
Change
Occupational Category
September 1998
December 2010
Number Percent
Blue-collar 242,977
205,915
(37,062)
(15.3%)
White-col ar 1,567,170
1,906,362
339,192
21.6%
—Professional 439,704
535,042
95,338
21.7%
—Administrative 531,395
770,743
239,348
45.0%

18 As of December 2010, there were 2,775 federal employees in the “pipefitter” occupational series, and 7,051
employees in the “psychology” series.
19 See http://www.opm.gov/feddata/gp58.pdf for the distinctions between these groups.
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Change
Occupational Category
September 1998
December 2010
Number Percent
—Technical 349,524
374,354
24,830
7.1%
—Clerical 198,898
143,942
(54,956)
(27.6%)
—Other 47,843
82,281
34,438
72.0%
Total 1,810,341
2,112,277
301,936
16.7%
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Note: The “other” category includes a few hundred “unspecified” in each year. Negative changes are in
parentheses.
Changes in the Demographic Characteristics of the Federal Civilian
Workforce
The federal civilian workforce has also changed during the last 12 years in terms of certain
demographic characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, age, and length of service). Some of
those changes were more significant than others, and some appear to be continuations of longer-
term trends.
Representation of Minorities and Women
Table 13 below provides data on the percentages of the federal civilian workforce in September
1998 and December 2010 that were women and minorities. The data indicate that the
representation of minorities in the federal workforce rose somewhat during this period (from
29.6% to 33.5%), while the representation of women declined slightly (from 44.4% to 44.1%).
According to OPM, in September 1988, minorities composed 26.7% of the executive branch
workforce, and women composed 42.2%.20
Table 13. Percentage of the Federal Civilian Workforce, Women and Minorities,
September 1998 and December 2010
Women/Minorities September
1998
December
2010
Women 44.4%
44.1%
Minorities 29.6%
33.5%
—African American
15.9%
17.4%
—Hispanic 6.4%
6.1%
—Asian/Pacific Islander
4.5%
5.7%
—Other minorities
2.1%
4.3%
Sources: The September 1998 data are from OPM’s The Fact Book: 1999 Edition (OWI-99-2, September 1999),
p. 56. The December 2010 data are from OPM’s FedScope database.

20 U.S. Office of Personnel Management, The Fact Book, 1999 Edition: Federal Civilian Workforce Statistics, OWI-
99-2 (September 1999).
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The slight decline in the percentage of the federal workforce that was women between 1998 and
2010 may be partly a function of the decline in the number of federal clerical jobs during this
period (down by nearly 55,000, as shown in Table 12 above), and in their participation rate in
those jobs. As Table 14 below shows, clerical jobs were 82% women in September 1998 but less
than 70% women by December 2010. On the other hand, the representation of women in the
professional and administrative categories (occupational categories that were growing during this
period) increased somewhat during this period.
Table 14. Percentage of Federal Civilian Workforce Categories That Were Women,
September 1998 and December 2010

Percentage of the Federal Workforce - Women
Occupational Category
September 1998
December 2010
Blue-Collar 10.8%
10.4%
White-Collar 49.6%
47.8%
—Professional 39.0%
45.8%
—Administrative 42.6%
43.7%
—Technical 60.4%
58.0%
—Clerical 82.1%
68.1%
—Other 12.2%
15.4%
Total 44.4%
44.1%
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
As Table 15 below shows, the percentage of the federal workforce that was minorities increased
in most of the occupational groupings, but the increases were most notable in the professional,
administrative, technical, and “other” occupational categories.
Table 15. Percentage of Federal Civilian Workforce Categories That Were Minorities,
September 1998 and December 2010

Percentage of the Federal Workforce—Minorities
Occupational Category
September 1998
December 2010
Blue-Collar 34.6%
34.4%
White-Collar 28.9%
33.4%
—Professional 21.3%
26.2%
—Administrative 24.5%
32.1%
—Technical 36.0%
40.1%
—Clerical 43.1%
46.1%
—Other 36.1%
40.2%
Total 29.6%
33.5%
Source: The September 1998 data are from OPM’s The Fact Book: 1999 Edition (OWI-99-2, September 1999), p.
46 and p. 56. The December 2010 data are from OPM’s FedScope database.
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The Senior Executive Service represents the most experienced and senior element of the federal
government’s career workforce, and racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in the SES ranks can
bring a variety of perspectives and approaches to policy development and implementation.21 As
Table 16 below shows, the percentage of the SES that was women in December 2010 was less
than women’s representation in the federal workforce as a whole (31.6% in the SES versus 44.1%
in the workforce). Minorities were even less represented in the SES than in the federal workforce
(18.1% of the SES were minorities versus 33.5% of the workforce as a whole).
Table 16. Percentage of the Federal Civilian Workforce and the Senior Executive
Service That Were Women and Minorities, December 2010

Representation in the
Women/Minorities Federal
Workforce
SES
Women 44.1%
31.6%
Minorities 33.5%
18.1%
—African American
17.4%
9.5%
—Hispanic 6.1%
3.1%
—Asian/Pacific Islander
5.7%
3.0%
—Other minorities
4.3%
2.5%
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Age and Length of Service
As Figure 3 below illustrates, the federal workforce was somewhat older in December 2010 than
in September 1998. For example, the percentage of employees aged 55 and older increased from
14.9% in 1998 to 25.8% in 2010. On the other hand, the percentage of employees aged 30 to 49
declined from 59.3% in 1998 to 46.9% in 2010. These changes are evidence of a much-discussed
aging of the federal workforce, with a larger percentage of federal employees potentially eligible
to retire, or approaching retirement eligibility than in previous years.22

21 See, for example, David W. Pitts, “Representative Bureaucracy, Ethnicity, and Public Schools: Examining the Link
Between Representation and Performance,” Administration & Society, vol. 39 (July 2007), pp. 497-527; and Morgen S.
Johansen, “The Effect of Female Strategic Managers on Organizational Performance, Public Organization Review, vol.
7 (September 2007), pp. 269-280.
22 See, for example, testimony of Nancy H. Kichak, Associate Director for Strategic Human Resources Policy, U.S.
Office of Personnel Management, before the Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District
of Columbia, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, May 20, 2008,
available at http://www.opm.gov/feddata/gp58.pdf.
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Figure 3. Age Distribution of the Federal Civilian Workforce,
September 1998 to December 2010
25.0
19.2
20.0
rce
17.4
16.5
16.5
rkfo
15.8
o
l W 15.0
13.7
14
ra
e
d
12.2
e
f F
9.9
o
9.3
9.6
9.3
e 10.0
g
8.4
ta
7.6
n
e
rc
5.6
e
P
5.0
4.0
3
3.4
1.9
1.6
0.4
0.3
0.0
<20
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65+
1998
2010

Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
In contrast, the average length of service for the federal workforce declined between September
1998 and December 2010—from 15.2 years to 13.5 years. As Figure 4 below shows, the changes
between 1998 and 2010 were not uniform across the length-of-service categories. A larger
percentage of the federal workforce had less than five years of federal service in 2010 than in
1998 (30.4% versus 15.9%, respectively), and a larger percentage of the workforce in 2010 had
more than 30 years experience than in 1998 (10.2% versus 6.8%, respectively). Differences
between 1998 and 2010 are also apparent in the middle length-of-service categories (and
particularly in the 10-to-14 year category). In 1998, 52.8% of the federal civilian workforce had
between 5 and 19 years of service; by 2010, the percentage of the workforce with that category of
service fell to 38.9%. The percentage of workers with between 10 and 14 years of service fell
most sharply—from 19.6% in 1998 to 11.1% in 2010.
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Figure 4. Years of Service Distribution of the Federal Civilian Workforce,
1998 to 2010
25.0
19.6
20.0
19.2
e
rc
fo
17.0
rk
16.2
o
l W
14.3
15.0
ra
13.1
de
11.1
11.3
Fe
10.4
of
9.6
e 10.0
8.6
8.9
g
ta
7.7
n
e
6.2
5.8
rc
5.2
4.9
5.2
Pe
5.0
4.0
1.6
0.0
<1
1--2
3--4
5--9
10--14
15--19
20--24
25--29
30--34
35+
1998
2010

Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Systems and Average Pay
The General Schedule (GS) was created by the Classification Act of 1949, and is by far the
largest federal pay system. However, as Table 17 below shows, the percentage of federal civilian
employees who were covered by the GS and related pay systems declined from nearly 80% in
September 1998 to 71% in December 2010, and the percentage in the “Prevailing Rate” (blue-
collar) pay system declined from 13.4% to 9.7%. During the same period of time, the percentage
of employees in single-agency pay systems increased substantially—particularly in pay systems
not related to nursing or teaching. The number of employees covered by such systems increased
from less than 16,000 in 1998 (0.8% of the federal civilian workforce) to 266,587 in 2010 (12.6%
of the federal workforce). According to FedScope, the largest pay plans within this category in
December 2010 were:
• the pay plan for TSA administrative employees within DHS, other than
executives (61,622 employees);
• the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “Core Compensation” plan (22,571
employees); and
• the FAA air traffic controller compensation plan (19,667 employees).
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Table 17. Employees in Major Federal Civilian Pay Systems,
September 1998 and December 2010

September 1998
December 2010
Federal Pay System
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
General
Schedule
or
related
1,431,757 79.1% 1,500,395 71.0%
Prevailing Rate
241,837 13.4% 204,982 9.7%
Other
136,520 7.5% 406,292 19.2%
A. Government-wide
76,125
4.2%
80,566
3.8%
1. Admin Determined
58,652
3.2%
58,187
2.8%
2. Senior Executive Service
7,019
0.4%
7,981
0.4%
3. Al other
10,454
0.6%
14,398
0.7%
B. Single Agency
60,395
3.3%
325,726
15.4%
1. Nursing
32,267
1.8%
51,033
2.4%
2. Teaching
12,242
0.6%
8,106
0.4%
3. Al other
15,886
0.8%
266,587
12.6%
Total
1,810,341 100.0% 2,112,277 100.0%
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Average Salary Differences
In December 2010, the average salary of the more than 2.1 million federal employees covered by
the FedScope database was $74,817. However, this average varies substantially by agency and
pay system, even among the major Cabinet departments. For example, as Table 18 below shows,
the average salary at DHS (which includes a large number of relatively lower-paid TSA
employees) was $67,470, whereas the average salary at DOT (more than 80% of which is
relatively higher-paid FAA employees) was $103,266. The agency with the highest average salary
in December 2010 was the Securities and Exchange Commission ($147,595), and the agency with
the lowest average salary was TSA ($48,733).






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Table 18. Average Salaries for Selected Federal Departments and Agencies,
December 2010
Departments/Agencies
Average Salary (December 2010)
Departments/agencies with relatively high average salaries
Securities and Exchange Commission
$147,595
Federal Housing Finance Agency
$147,350
Commodities Futures Trading Corporation
$137,470
Federal Communications Commission
$119,068
Federal Labor Relations Authority
$117,217
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
$116,471
Federal Deposit Insurance Commission
$108,342
Department of Transportation
$103,266
—Federal Aviation Administration
$104,601
Department of Energy
$103,636
Department of Education
$102,457
Departments/agencies with relative low average salaries
Department of Agriculture
$65,180
—Agricultural Marketing Service
$49,112
Department of the Interior
$66,285
—Indian Affairs
$54,925
Department of Homeland Security
$67,470
—Transportation Security Administration
$48,733
Department of Defense
$70,174
—U.S. Army Instal ation Management
$56,784
Source: OPM’s FedScope database.
Highest Paid Federal Employees
As Table 19 below shows, 84,845 (4.0%) of the more than 2.1 million federal employees
included in the FedScope database as of December 2010 had salaries of at least $150,000 per
year. Nine departments and agencies accounted for 65,343 (77.0%) of these relatively higher-
salaried employees: DVA, DOD, DOT, DOJ, HHS, Treasury, DOC, SEC, and NASA. Just the
top two departments (DVA and DOD) accounted for 42.6% of the employees in this category
(36,136 of the 84,845 employees).
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Table 19. Employees With Annual Salaries of $150,000 or More, by Department or
Agency, December 2010
Number of Employees with Annual Salaries of

$150,000
$150,000
or More as
or More

Percentage
$150,000
$160,000
$170,000
(sum of
of the
Department/
to
to
to
$180,000
prior
Total
Total
Agency
$159,999
$169,999
179,999
or more
columns) Workforce Workforce
DVA 2,534
2,556
3,212
13,246
21,548
312,878
6.9%
DOD 7,891
5,592
749
356
14,588
771,614
1.9%
DOT 2,788
1,992
2,153
2
6,935
58,189
11.9%
DOJ 5,987
600
355
2
6,944
118,104
5.9%
HHS
2,230 561 687 2,027 5,445 83,745 6.5%
Treasury 1,842 358 444 463 3,107
112,541 2.8%
DOC 1,954
258
186
3
2,401
45,938
5.2%
SEC
386 413 534 913 2,246 3,982 56.4%
NASA 1,684
335
104
6
2,129
18,732
11.4%
Subtotal 27,296
12,605
8,424
17,018
65,343
1,407,619
4.7%
All other
11,452 4,405 2,424 1,221 19,582 704,658 2.8%
agencies
Total
38,748 17,010 10,848 18,239 84,845 2,112,277 4.0%
Source: FedScope, which covers only federal civilian employees in the executive branch. It excludes certain
executive branch agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Tennessee
Valley Authority.
Note: The totals do not include missing data, which varies somewhat from one type of data to the next.
Therefore, the total number of employees varies slightly from one table to the next.
Government-wide, and in seven of the nine listed agencies, the largest number of these higher-
salaried employees were in the “$150,000 to $159,999” pay category. However, in both DVA and
the SEC, the largest number of these employees were in the “$180,000 or more” category. DVA
alone accounted for 72.6% of the employees government-wide with annual salaries of $180,000
or more (13,246 of the 18,239 employees). The departments and agencies varied considerably in
the percentage of their workforces with salaries of at least $150,000 per year; the lowest
percentage was DOD (1.9%), and the highest percentage was the SEC (56.4%).
In some of these departments and agencies, certain occupations accounted for the bulk of the
employees with salaries of $150,000 or more per year. For example:
• At DVA, 18,830 (91.4%) of the 21,548 employees with annual salaries of
$150,000 or more were Medical Officers (occupational series 0602), and another
899 employees (4.2%) were Dental Officers (0680).23

23 According to OPM, “Medical Officers” are physicians, and “Dental Officers” are dentists.
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• At DOT, of the 6,935 employees with salaries of $150,000 or more per year,
6,323 (91.2%) were in the Federal Aviation Administration, and of these, 4,848
(76.6%) were Air Traffic Controllers (occupational series 2152).
• At DOJ, of the 6,944 employees with salaries of $150,000 or more per year,
5,553 (80.0%) were General Attorneys (occupational series 0905). Most of these
General Attorneys (3,168 of the 5,553, or 57.1%) were U.S. Attorneys or in the
Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys, almost all of whom made less than
$160,000 per year (3,160 of 3,168).
• At the SEC, of the 2,246 employees with salaries of at least $150,000 per year,
1,975 (87.9%) were either General Attorneys (occupational series 0905) or
Accountants (0510).
• At HHS, more than one-half of the employees with salaries of at least $150,000
per year (2,919 of the 5,445) were either Medical Officers (occupational series
0602) or General Health Science personnel (0601). More than 96% of the
Medical Officers at HHS worked at the National Institutes of Health, the Food
and Drug Administration, the Indian Health Service, or the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (2,167 of 2,248).
In other agencies, however, the higher-salaried employees were not concentrated in one
or two occupations. For example, at DOD, the occupation that contained the largest
percentage of employees earning $150,000 or more was General Engineering
(occupational series 801), which comprised 11.4% of the employees in this category.
Summary Observations
The data provided in this report show that the “federal workforce” varies substantially in size,
shape, and characteristics, depending on how that workforce is conceived. Viewed broadly, the
“federal government” includes civilian and military employees, all branches of government, and
the U.S. Postal Service. However, most discussions of the federal workforce focus on civilian
employees in the executive branch. Within that category, while OPM’s FedScope data indicate
that nearly 90% of the workforce in December 2010 was composed of full-time, permanent
employees, about half of all hiring and separations from federal service each year involve
temporary and/or other than full-time employees. Also, although federal pay averaged almost
$75,000 in December 2010, federal agencies vary significantly in average salary, and in the
proportion of their workforce with salaries of more than $150,000 per year. Therefore, in
discussions about “the federal workforce,” it is important to be clear which agencies and what
types of employees are included.
Some aspects of the federal civilian executive branch workforce are, however, relatively
unambiguous. That workforce grew by nearly 350,000 employees between September 2000 (the
low point since 1998) and December 2010, with the growth concentrated in homeland security-
related agencies, DVA, DOD, and HHS. The civilian workforce at other departments and agencies
(e.g., USDA, Department of State, and EPA) became smaller. Although federal employees work
in more than 100 agencies and organizations, the data indicate that nearly 60% of the federal
civilian workforce was in three large Cabinet departments in December 2010—DOD, DVA, and
DHS. Even in its reduced size, DOD was by far the largest and most ubiquitous federal
department or agency. In most states, DOD was the largest federal civilian employer (often by a
wide margin), and DOD was the second-largest employer in most of the other states. DOD also
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employed more than 90% of federal civilian employees in foreign countries (not including the
foreign service).
It is also clear from the data that certain aspects of the federal workforce have changed in recent
years. For example, between September 1998 and December 2010, the number of blue-collar
employees declined by more than 15%, and the number of clerical employees declined by more
than 27%. Meanwhile, the number of professional and administrative employees increased by
21.7% and 45.0%, respectively. The percentage of the workforce that was minorities also
increased during this period, but the percentage that was women declined slightly. Also, although
women as well as minorities represented an increasing proportion of the growing professional and
administrative groups, their representation in the Senior Executive Service lagged behind their
representation in the workforce as a whole. The federal workforce was also noticeably older in
2010 than it was 12 years earlier. The percentage of the workforce that was age 55 or older rose
sharply between 1998 and 2010 (from less than 15% to more than 25%). In 1998, the age
grouping with the largest percentage of federal workers was age 45-49; in 2010, the modal age
grouping was age 50-54.
Perhaps the most surprising statistics, however, involve the “hidden” federal workforce of
contractors and grantees. That workforce was estimated to include more than 10.5 million jobs in
2005—nearly four times as large as the combined total of all three branches of government and
the U.S. Postal Service. The number of contractor and grantee jobs was also estimated to have
increased by more 50% between 1999 and 2005. If that rate of increase is accurate and continued
for the next six years, the number of federal contractors and grantees would reach nearly 16
million in 2011. However, it is unclear whether the number is increasing or decreasing because
(unlike federal employment) there are currently no accurate data on the number of contractors or
grantees. Legislation enacted in 2009 (Section 752 of P.L. 111-8 and Section 743 of P.L. 111-
117) directs federal agencies to report information to Congress on federal contractors, and those
requirements may result in some contractor data becoming available shortly.


Author Contact Information

Curtis W. Copeland

Specialist in American National Government
cwcopeland@crs.loc.gov, 7-0632


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