The US Federal Government is an Employer
And It Needs a Data-Driven Workforce Strategy.
Introduction
The US federal government is an employer unlike any other. The scale and diversity of its responsibilities span a range that no other organization has to face, from crop insurance to space travel and from student loans to disaster relief. It has millions of employees. It is accountable to taxpayers who rely on it to work smoothly and efficiently.
But despite this unique range of offerings, the federal government is still an employer, and it needs a data-driven talent strategy in line with its overall goals. In this, at least, the government is just like any other organization. Enterprises that invest in reliable analysis of the labor market save time and money and have the right insights at their fingertips at decision time.
Before you can evaluate the gaps or redundancies in your workforce, predict future needs, or set goals for how to reach them, you need to understand where you are right now. Using Lightcast data on occupations and skills, on top of refined and aggregated data on government hiring, we can present a full picture of the government’s size and scale, the composition of its workforce, and the impact that this one entity has on all the industries it touches.
This analysis is based on two themes:
By breaking down the workforce by department and demographics, we can better understand the size and shape of the federal government as an employer.
By comparing the skills requested in federal job postings to the skills held by federal employees, we can see how they are aligned and potential gaps that could be bridged. Adding occupation data to the skills data clarifies the type of work that government employees do.
Size and Scope
In the United States, over 23 million people work in the government. But out of those 23 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that only 3 million work at the federal level. State governments, meanwhile, employ 5.5 million, and local governments employ 14.9 million (most of which are teachers).
Limiting our focus to the 3 million employed at the federal level leaves us with an employee base roughly double the size of Amazon. Breaking down the overall federal government into its component departments—as shown in the table below—further clarifies the type of work that federal employees perform.
Federal Employees are a Minority of All Government Workers
Percentage of Government Workers by Jurisdiction
Federal Employees by Department
| Department | Employee Count | Primary Function of Workforce |
|---|---|---|
| Defense | 2.725M* | Coordinates and supervises functions related to national security and the military. The DoD's primary mission is to protect the country's security and national interests, and to deter war. |
| State | 77,880** | Leads the country's foreign policy and represents the United States abroad including negotiating treaties and fighting terrorism. |
| Justice | 116,000 | Enforces federal laws and seeks just punishment for those who break them. |
| Agriculture | 100,000 | Provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on public policy, the best available science, and effective management. |
| Treasury | 100,000 | Manages federal finances, collects taxes, generates currency. |
| Health & Human Services | 80,000 | Financial assistance and services for low-income families, maternal and infant health programs, and early childhood development programs. Enforces HIPAA. |
| Interior | 70,000 | Manages public lands, national parks, and wildlife refuges and protects endangered species as well as clean energy projects. |
| Transportation | 56,107 | Plans and coordinates federal transportation projects, sets safety regulations, anti-terror intelligence. |
| Commerce | 47,060 | Works to create conditions for economic growth and opportunity in all communities. This includes promoting job creation, ensuring fair trade, and strengthening domestic industry. This includes granting patents and trademarks. |
| Labor | 17,778 | Administers federal labor laws to ensure workers' rights, including: Safe and healthy working conditions, unemployment insurance, retirement benefits. |
| Energy | 14,000 | Oversees national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy-related research, and energy conservation. |
| Housing & Urban Development | 8,635 | Provides assistance to low and moderate-income families to access quality affordable housing through programs like rental assistance and mortgage insurance. |
| Education | 4,400 | Oversees federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds and collects data on America's schools. |
* 825,000 Reserve/Ntl Guard, 600,000 Civilian and 1.3M active duty
** Foreign Services: 13,637, Civil Services: 11,799, Local employees: 49,923
Who Does The Government Employ?
Data from worker profiles provide insight into the demographic makeup of the federal government. Use the arrows to browse the three charts below and see breakdowns by age, race/ethnicity, and gender.
The map below, which uses Lightcast worker profile data to identify the concentration of civilian federal workers nationwide. While the largest share of these workers live in the Washington, D.C., area, the federal workforce is widely distributed throughout the country. Outside of the capital, many of the areas with the most federal workers per capita are near military installations (including Bremerton, WA, home of Naval Base Kitsap; Hinesville, GA, home of Fort Stewart; and Jacksonville, NC, home of Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base). Although this analysis only includes civilian workers, high civilian employment on military bases has a significant impact on the federal workforce.
Other areas with a high concentration of federal workers include Parkersburg, WV, where the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (an agency of the Treasury Department) is based, and Eagle Pass, TX, which has a National Guard camp but has mainly seen federal employment through the Border Patrol.
Outside Washington, Federal Government Employment is Widespread
Federal Civilian Employment (Excluding National Security)
Skills and Occupations
An efficient, future-focused workforce strategy needs alignment between the skills a workforce has and the skills their employer needs them to have. Job postings reflect the skills an organization is looking for, while worker profiles show the skills that employees already possess, and comparing the two can show gaps that need to be bridged. By knowing what an organization’s employees are capable of, the organization can also hone strategies that make the best use of those resources.
Data from publicly available worker profiles also shows the occupations that government employees currently hold.
Top 10 Federal Government Occupations
Computer User Support Specialists
Managers, All Other
Management Analysts
Accountants and Auditors
Business Operations Specialists, All Other
Computer Systems Analysts
Information Security Analysts
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
Computer and Information Systems Managers
Human Resources Specialists
Source: Lightcast Company Talent Profile
Many Skills Held by Government Employees Are Also Needed in Private-Sector Roles
Top Skills Held By Federal Government Employees
The occupations and skills highly represented within the federal workforce are also highly sought after in the private sector. Looking at the top federal occupations by profile count, the industries with the highest demand for those workers would be consulting, education, IT, engineering services, and finance.
The unique nature of government work is not in the skills and occupations it needs to fill, but the nature of the work the workers use those skills to accomplish. The government is competing for the same workers as other companies, it just uses them to accomplish different tasks.
Many federal programs exist to provide services that private entities can’t or won’t, and that special status is reflected in the labor market data. Within the North American Industry Classification System, which organizes industries based on the work that they do, “Public Administration” gets its own category, made up of subcategories that are diverse on their face (“Administration of economic programs” rarely overlaps with “Space research and technology”) but alike in the fact that they are unique to government work. Lightcast data shows how many workers are employed within those groups.
What Makes Up 'Public Administration'?
Number of Workers in NAICS-4 Sub-Industries
The Ripple Effect: Government Funding and Contractors
Though the federal government only directly employs 3 million, its impact on the overall national workforce through funding and contracts is immense. According to USAFunding.gov, the government's official hub for federal grants and funding opportunities, the engineering, health insurance, and medical research and development industries have been awarded the most grants. The companies receiving the most funding were Optum Public Sector Solutions (which contracts to run government operations), Lockheed Martin, and the McKesson corporation, a healthcare and pharmaceuticals company.
Workforce Strategy Goes To Washington
The transformation of large organizations is too important to rely on anything less than the most accurate and reliable data available. The federal government, with its workforce of over 4 million employees and contractors, illustrates both the challenge and opportunity of using workforce data to drive organizational change.
Modernization Through Measurement
Success in workforce transformation requires moving beyond basic headcount metrics to sophisticated workforce analytics. Organizations need to understand not just where employees are today, but how their roles and capabilities align with future requirements. Labor market analytics can reveal patterns in recruitment, retention, and performance that inform strategic planning, while helping build cultures of continuous improvement.
The key lies in using data to drive meaningful organizational change. By tracking metrics that matter, organizations can identify which departments are understaffed, where institutional knowledge risks being lost through attrition, and how effectively teams collaborate across functions. This data-driven approach helps align individual performance with organizational goals while providing objective measures of transformation progress.
Building Adaptable Teams
Data-driven workforce planning enables organizations to move from reactive hiring to strategic talent development. By analyzing skills inventories against projected needs, leaders can identify capability gaps and create targeted development programs. The federal government's experience shows how workforce data can inform everything from recruitment strategies to succession planning.
Effective talent development requires understanding both individual capabilities and organizational needs. Analytics can help identify high-potential employees, track development progress, and measure the effectiveness of training investments. This information becomes particularly valuable when planning cross-functional moves and leadership development.
A Skills-Based Future
In the past, workforce planning has focused on roles and positions, but a future-ready organization will be one that relies on skills-based approaches. Organizations need granular understanding of their skills inventory, gaps, and future requirements. This goes beyond traditional job descriptions to capture the actual capabilities that drive organizational performance.
Skills data provides unique insights that role-based analysis cannot capture. It reveals hidden talent pools within organizations, identifies transferable capabilities that enable workforce flexibility, and highlights emerging skill needs before they become critical gaps. By mapping skills to business strategy, organizations can better prepare for technological change, evolving market demands, and new ways of working.
Looking ahead, organizations face increasing pressure to optimize their workforce investments. Economic uncertainty, technological change, and evolving workplace expectations demand more sophisticated approaches to workforce planning. Success requires not just collecting data, but using it to drive meaningful organizational change focused on the skills that matter most.