January 2013

Sizing Up The Executive Branch 

of The Federal Workforce
Sizing Up the Executive Branch

Fiscal Year 2012 

This document provides a brief summary of the size

of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

Planning and Policy Analysis

Data Analysis Group
Purpose

This document presents an overview of the size of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, 

providing the public and analysts access to commonly requested information about the size of the 

Federal Workforce. 

This document presents basic data, in the form of tables and graphs, on the current and historical size of 

Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

Coverage

Often, OPM coverage is equated to the Federal Executive civilian workforce. The coverage is in fact 

exclusively Federal and exclusively civilian, but the data exclude a few major components of the 

Executive Branch (most notably the Postal Service and many intelligence agencies) and include some 

pieces of the Legislative Branch. For specific exclusions and inclusions, visit FedData on the OPM’s 

website: http://www.opm.gov/feddata/html/sdminfo.asp. OPM data also do not include contractors

and contract employees. 

Types of Employment

Each Federal employee has a particular work schedule, type of appointment, tenure, and appointment 

authority, among other variables, which dictate the “type” of his or her employment. These variables 

have many levels and definitions. Collectively, however, they lead to six types of employment.1

 This 

paper examines two types of employment: Non-Seasonal Full-Time Permanent (NSFTP) Employees, and 

all other employees. 

Non-Seasonal Full-Time Permanent (NSFTP): this category includes all employees working a 40-hour 

work week year round with no absolute end date. Non-seasonal Full-Time Permanent (NSFTP) 

employees make up the majority of the Federal workforce, over 87%.

The Other employment category rolls up the other five employment types, and makes up about 12% of 

the Federal workforce. This category includes part time, seasonal, and non-permanent employees. 

 

1 Data are always filtered to employees in pay status, meaning only employees currently receiving a paycheck are 

included.
Size of the Executive branch of the Federal Government 

This section presents basic data, in the form of tables and graphs, on the current and historical size of 

Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

Figure 1: Federal Executive Branch Employment by Fiscal Year 

Figure 1 shows the size of the Executive Branch of the Federal workforce over the last eight fiscal years. 

Again NSFTP employees in 2012 make up over 87% of the employees in the Executive Branch of the 

Federal workforce.

0 

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Employees

Fiscal Year

OTHER

NSFTP
Table 1. Federal Executive Branch Employment by Fiscal Year

YEAR NSFTP OTHER TOTAL

2005 1,611,400 249,549 1,860,949

2006 1,608,157 244,668 1,852,825

2007 1,618,159 244,245 1,862,404

2008 1,673,249 265,572 1,938,821

2009 1,757,105 281,078 2,038,183

2010 1,831,719 281,491 2,113,210

2011 1,856,580 273,709 2,130,289

2012 1,850,311 259,910 2,110,221

Table 1 shows the size of the Executive Branch of the Federal workforce over the last eight fiscal years 

and is the data used to create Figure 1 above.

Figure 2: Federal Executive Branch Employment for the Past Year by Month 

Figure 2 shows the size of the Executive Branch of the Federal workforce over the last thirteen months.

0 

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

Employees

Month

OTHER

NSFTP
Table 2: Federal Executive Branch Employment for the Past Year by Month:

DATE NSFTP OTHER TOTAL

09/2011 1,856,580 273,709 2,130,289

10/2011 1,856,085 260,234 2,116,319

11/2011 1,857,422 256,563 2,113,985

12/2011 1,849,768 251,137 2,100,905

01/2012 1,843,076 253,664 2,096,740

02/2012 1,843,306 256,174 2,099,480

03/2012 1,844,485 257,784 2,102,269

04/2012 1,844,624 261,774 2,106,398

05/2012 1,844,336 267,006 2,111,342

06/2012 1,844,059 271,648 2,115,707

07/2012 1,847,149 270,411 2,117,560

08/2012 1,848,657 267,227 2,115,884

09/2012 1,850,311 259,910 2,110,221

Table 2 shows the size of the Executive Branch of the Federal workforce over the last thirteen months 

and is the data used to create Figure 2 above.
Table 3 NSFTP Federal Executive Branch Employment by Cabinet level Agency 

AGENCY 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

DEPARTMENT OF 

AGRICULTURE 82,407 80,643 78,993 78,369 78,962 80,510 79,899 76,785

DEPARTMENT OF 

COMMERCE 30,631 31,502 32,177 32,924 33,642 33,711 34,501 35,013

DEPARTMENT OF 

DEFENSE 69,758 69,946 70,111 72,133 76,622 81,179 85,818 86,135

DEPARTMENT OF 

EDUCATION 3,952 3,803 3,789 3,825 3,769 4,010 4,066 3,899

DEPARTMENT OF 

ENERGY 14,463 14,333 14,286 14,803 15,134 15,757 15,548 15,041

DEPARTMENT OF 

HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES

51,486 52,797 52,842 53,325 56,124 58,946 60,303 61,168

DEPARTMENT OF 

HOMELAND 

SECURITY

127,784 128,646 134,850 147,533 157,573 161,273 166,210 169,116

DEPARTMENT OF 

HOUSING AND 

URBAN 

DEVELOPMENT

9,622 9,415 9,237 9,445 9,147 9,397 9,269 8,982

DEPARTMENT OF 

JUSTICE 100,441 102,250 102,716 104,282 108,349 112,688 112,867 113,358

DEPARTMENT OF 

LABOR 14,519 14,323 14,406 14,322 14,762 15,387 15,190 15,705

DEPARTMENT OF 

STATE 18,457 7,473 8,009 8,428 8,622 8,959 9,443 9,761

DEPARTMENT OF 

THE AIR FORCE 146,425 148,912 145,987 142,957 148,133 158,039 166,338 161,574

DEPARTMENT OF 

THE ARMY 212,464 215,344 216,076 225,881 241,329 257,947 255,487 251,257

DEPARTMENT OF 

THE INTERIOR 54,664 53,152 51,953 51,828 52,796 53,460 53,393 53,156

DEPARTMENT OF 

THE NAVY 167,358 166,729 166,714 172,392 180,913 189,389 191,975 192,500

DEPARTMENT OF 

THE TREASURY 95,228 96,028 94,603 93,961 98,361 99,868 96,232 92,397

DEPARTMENT OF 

TRANSPORTATION 52,280 52,208 52,530 53,549 55,433 56,151 56,092 55,614

DEPARTMENT OF 

VETERANS 

AFFAIRS

201,135 205,291 215,336 236,761 255,012 268,187 277,461 285,436

TOTAL 1,453,074 1,452,795 1,464,615 1,516,718 1,594,683 1,664,858 1,690,092 1,686,897

Table 3 shows the NSFTP size of Federal Executive Branch employment by cabinet level agencies over 

the last eight fiscal years. The Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department 

of Justice, Department of the Air Force, Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, and the 

Department of Veterans Affairs have each grown by more than 10,000 employees over the past eight 

fiscal years. Over the last eight fiscal years those seven agencies have grown by over 230,000 

employees.
Table 4. Comparing the Federal Executive Branch Workforce to U.S. Population:

POPULATION 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

TOTAL U.S. 

POPULATION2 295,753,151 298,593,212 301,579,895 304,374,846 307,006,550 309,326,225 311,587,816 313,914,040

NSFTP 

FEDERAL 

EMPLOYEES

1,611,400 1,608,157 1,618,159 1,673,249 1,757,105 1,831,719 1,856,580 1,850,311

NSFTP 

FEDERAL 

EMPLOYEES 

PER 1,000 

AMERICANS

5.448 5.386 5.366 5.497 5.723 5.922 5.958 5.894

Table 4 compares the size of the Executive Branch of the Federal workforce to the United States 

population over the past eight years. The U.S. population data comes from the Census Bureau website 2

(the source of some information in Table 4 below) at http://www.census.gov/ It is important to note 

that this table considers the entire U.S. population, not simply the labor force or workforce. Census data 

is in no way linked to OPM data.

Additional Details

For any data requests, the OPM produces an online data tool, FedScope, which is updated Monthly: 

http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/. All of the tables and figures above can be replicated in FedScope, with 

the option for much more detail. The tool is best operated in Internet Explorer. For all other inquiries, 

contact Data Analysis Group through FedStats at FedStats@opm.gov. 

 

2 The U.S. population estimates came from the Census Bureau’s July release: 

http://www.census.gov/popest/data/historical/2000s/vintage_2009/index.html and 

http://www.census.gov/popest/data/national/totals/2012/index.html
United States

Office of Personnel Management

Planning and Policy Analysis

Data Analysis Group

1900 E Street, NW

Washington, DC 20415

PPA/DAG-02/13