Debates over the size of government often focus on the number of federal employees. The civilian federal workforce has stayed between about 2 and 2.4 million people since the 1960s, even as the population and federal spending grew, because much of the growth came through contractors, grants to states, and direct payments. In 2025 the workforce shrank sharply.
This guide sets out the key numbers on who works for the federal government and how that changed.
Most white-collar employees are paid under the General Schedule, with annual raises set by the President and Congress, and the federal payroll makes up a small share of the budget, roughly 4 to 5 percent of spending. Studies disagree on whether federal workers are overpaid or underpaid compared with the private sector, with results depending on education level and benefits. Supporters of the 2025 reductions said the workforce had grown inefficient, while critics warned of lost expertise and slower services such as benefits processing and inspections.
At the end of 2025 the Department of Veterans Affairs employed about 451,000 people, mostly in its hospitals and clinics. Homeland Security had about 228,000, and the Navy, Army, and Air Force together employed more than 560,000 civilians, with about 147,000 more in other Defense offices. The Justice Department had about 107,000 and the Treasury about 90,000. About two-thirds of federal civilians work in defense, veterans, and homeland security agencies.
Only about one in six federal civilian employees works in the Washington, D.C., area, and large numbers work in states such as California, Texas, Virginia, Maryland, and Florida. More than 90 percent are white-collar workers, and they include doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers, lawyers, law enforcement officers, and administrators. About 30 percent are veterans. The average age is about 47, older than the private sector workforce.
According to Office of Personnel Management data analyzed by the Pew Research Center, the federal civilian executive branch workforce, excluding the Postal Service and some intelligence agencies, fell from about 2,312,000 in December 2024 to about 2,075,000 in December 2025. About 348,000 people left during 2025, including those who took deferred resignation offers, retired, or were laid off, while hiring fell by more than half to about 117,000. Counts vary by source depending on whether they include the Postal Service, the military, Congress, and the courts.
About 1.3 million people serve on active duty in the armed forces, and roughly 750,000 more serve in the reserves and National Guard. The Postal Service employs about 600,000 people. Congress and the judiciary together employ about 60,000. Federal contractors and grant-funded workers number in the millions, by some estimates more than twice the civilian workforce, though there is no official count. State and local governments employ about 20 million people, roughly ten times the federal civilian workforce.
The 2025 cuts fell unevenly. The U.S. Agency for International Development lost more than 90 percent of its staff as it was dismantled, and the Education Department lost more than 40 percent. The Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau each lost more than a quarter. Immigration and Customs Enforcement grew by more than a third, and Customs and Border Protection grew slightly. The share of employees under 35 and those with less than two years of service both fell.
See how people are hired in how federal hiring works, learn about job protections in Schedule F and the fight over the civil service, or compare levels of government in states vs. federal: who does what.