Federal Employment Statistics

2002 Publication of Employment by Geographic Area

SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

Population Coverage

Data on active Federal civilian employment as of December 31, 2002, cover all Federal departments and agencies except for the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, Army / Air Force Exchange Service, Consolidated Metropolitan Technical Personnel Center, Defense Career Management and Support Agency, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity, and seasonal employees other than Department of Defense's Education Activity. This survey includes the U.S. Postal Service. Special treatment is made for seasonal employees.

Major Geographic Areas

Federal civilian employment totaled 2,799,667 in the geographic survey as of December 31, 2002. Federal civilian employment worldwide increased by +1.2 percent (+33,775) since our previous survey as of December 31, 2000.

Most Federal civilian employees worked in the United States (2,706,383 or 96.7 percent) while some worked in the U.S. territories (18,958 or 0.6 percent) and in foreign countries (74,326 or 2.7 percent). There were 342,928 employees (12.2 percent) working in the Washington, District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia-West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area and 2,363,455 (84.4 percent) located in the United States outside the Nation's capital area. Most Federal employees (87.2 percent) located in the United States and Puerto Rico worked in metropolitan areas. Changes since the 2000 survey are discussed in the following sections.

States

Federal civilian employment varied by State from 244,863 in California to 5,245 in Delaware. Seven States had more than 100,000 Federal civilian workers: California 244,863; Texas 165,837; Virginia 143,234; New York 133,017; Maryland 132,718; Florida 121,662; and Pennsylvania 106,358. There were also 188,855 Federal civilian employees working in the Nation's capital city of Washington in the District of Columbia. The table on the next page shows employment by State in descending order. State distributions are shown on Table 3 by pay system category and on Table 5 by county (or independent city) and selected agency.

Short-Term State Trends

Since December 2000, the District of Columbia and 32 States had net increases in Federal civilian employment. State changes reflected the Department of Transportation's (DOT) new Transportation Security Administration and the continuing U.S. Postal Service (USPS) cutbacks. Nevada had the largest net percentage gain of +13.1 percent due to DOT +1,613 and USPS -402.

Florida gained 8,395 workers (+7.4 percent) due to DOT +7,571 and Department of Veterans Affairs +803 despite USPS -2,467. The District of Columbia gained 7,886 workers (+4.4 percent) due to Navy +3,056; DOT +1,335; State Department +1,090 and Congress +800 despite USPS -1,077 and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation -534. Texas gained 3,438 workers (+2.1 percent) due to DOT +5,725; Department of Justice +1,055; and Army +801 despite USPS -4,019 and Air Force -919.

Another nine States added more than 1,000 employees each: Arizona +2,965; Utah +2,957; Washington +2,648; Maryland +2,571; Hawaii +2,005; Nevada +1,754; Georgia +1,591; Colorado +1,507; and New Jersey +1,009.

Eighteen States lost Federal civilian employees. Connecticut had the largest net percentage loss (-4.70 percent) due to USPS -1,329. Ohio had the largest loss in raw numbers (-3,468) due to USPS -4,208 and DOT +1,409. California lost 2,976 (-1.2 percent) due to USPS -11,437 despite DOT +7,023; and the Departments of Justice +1,071; Agriculture +927; and Health and Human Services +651. Three other States lost more than 1,000 employees each: Illinois -1,483; Virginia -1,398; and Tennessee -1,122.

Long-Term State Trends

The twenty-year long-term trend from 1982 to 2002 showed sizeable changes among the States; nationwide, net Federal civilian employment has dropped (down 42,888 or -1.6 percent). Thirty States gained and twenty States lost Federal civilian employment during the last 20 years. The following ten States showed changes of at least 10,000 Federal civil servants each: Florida +36,879; North Carolina +14,159; Georgia +13,645; Arizona +12,661; Texas +10,157; Missouri -11,396; Alabama -11,996; New York -20,599; Pennsylvania -22,707; and California -55,922. The District of Columbia lost 24,040 employees (-11.3 percent).

Ten States showed a 15 percentage or more increase as follows: Nevada +65 percent, Florida and Vermont +43 percent each, Arizona +37 percent, North Carolina +33 percent, New Hampshire +32 percent, West Virginia +27 percent, Rhode Island +19 percent, Georgia +18 percent, and Minnesota +17 percent.

Declines greater than 15 percent took place in the following seven States: Maine -24 percent, Alabama -20 percent, California -19 percent, Pennsylvania and South Carolina -18 percent each, Missouri -17 percent, and Tennessee -15 percent. The trend table on pages 4-5 presents Federal civilian employment by State from 1980 to 2002.

Metropolitan Areas

Each of the 337 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States and Puerto Rico had Federal civilian employees in December 2002. Most Federal civilian employees in the United States (excluding the 51,794 with unspecified State) and Puerto Rico worked in metropolitan areas (87.2 percent or 2,327,823). Small towns and rural areas outside MSAs had only 12.8 percent (342,049) of the Federal workers.

The Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV MSA had the most Federal civil servants (342,928) because most of the large agencies have their headquarters there. The next four largest concentrations of Federal civilian employment were in: New York, NY with 66,279; Chicago, IL with 63,230; Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA with 53,771; and Philadelphia, PA-NJ with 53,067 workers. There were 21 other large MSAs with more than 20,000 Federal civilian employees. The Arecibo, Puerto Rico MSA had the lowest Federal population with just 144. MSA distributions are shown on Table 2 by pay system category and on Table 4 by major agency.

Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas (CMSAs) have populations of more than one million and meet other criteria specified by the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; 76 of the MSAs make up the 19 CMSAs. The largest CMSAs were the Washington-Baltimore, DC-MD-VA-WV CMSA with 387,538 Federal civilian employees; the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT-PA CMSA with 151,689; and the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, CA CMSA with 90,823.

Since December 2000, Federal civilian employment in the United States (excluding unspecified State) and Puerto Rico increased in Metropolitan Statistical Areas by +1.0 percent (+22,689) and also increased in small towns and rural areas by +2.4 percent (+8,121). The table on the preceding page shows the 13 CMSAs and 7 MSAs with more than 25,000 Federal civilian employees in December 2000 or 2002.

Twelve of the large metropolitan areas added workers during 2001 and 2002 while eight metropolitan areas lost workers. Washington-Baltimore, DC-MD-VA-WV CMSA gained the most employees (+8,233) and Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL CMSA had the largest percentage gain (+14.6 percent). San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA CMSA lost the most employees (-3,411) and St. Louis, MO-IL MSA had the largest percentage loss (-10.9 percent).

Agency changes affecting metropolitan areas were primarily the continuing U.S. Postal Service cutbacks and the Department of Transportation's new Transportation Security Administration. Air Force cutting 926 caused the losses in the San Antonio, TX MSA. Navy adding 1,356 caused the expansion in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA-NC MSA. Many sizeable agency changes occurred in the Washington-Baltimore, DC-MD-VA-WV CMSA: Transportation +4,358; Health and Human Services +1,239; State +1,106; Congress +800; Treasury +654; Justice +595; U.S. Postal Service -3,403; and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation -539.

Postal cutbacks outweighed the Transportation additions as the primary agency changes in the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, CA CMSA; Chicago-Gary-Kenosha, IL-IN-WI CMSA; Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, PA-NJ-DE-MD CMSA; San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA CMSA; Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI CMSA; Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX CMSA; Kansas City, MO-KS MSA; and St. Louis, MO-IL MSA. Transportation additions outweighed the Postal cutbacks as the primary agency changes in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT-PA CMSA (plus Veterans Affairs down 885); Boston-Worchester-Lawrence, MA-NH-ME-CT CMSA; Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton, WA CMSA; Atlanta, GA MSA (plus Health and Human Services up 833); Dallas-Fort Worth, TX CMSA; San Diego, CA MSA; Denver-Boulder-Greeley, CO CMSA; Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL CMSA; and Oklahoma City, OK MSA.

Overseas Areas and U.S. Citizenship

Federal civilian employees overseas totaled 93,284 in December 2002 (3.3 percent of worldwide total) of which 18,958 worked in U.S. territories and 74,326 in foreign countries. The U.S. territories with the most Federal civilian employees were: Puerto Rico with 15,283; Guam with 2,319; and U.S. Virgin Islands with 1,129. The five foreign countries with the most Federal civilian employees were: 18,642 in Germany; 11,142 in Republic of Korea (South Korea); 7,364 in Japan; 6,268 in Italy; and 3,026 in the United Kingdom (Great Britain). Table 6 shows employment in foreign countries and Table 7 in U.S. territories.

Since December 2000, Federal civilian employ-ment in foreign countries rose slightly by 862 for a +1.2 percent gain. There were 652 more employees in Chad due to the State Department and 127 more in Bahrain due to the Defense Department. In the U.S. Territories, Federal civilian employment expanded by 967 for a +5.4 percent gain. Puerto Rico added 569, U.S. Virgin Islands 216, and Guam 147; all these increases were due to the Department of Transportation.

The United States Government employed 67,585 U.S. citizens in overseas locations as well as 25,699 direct-hire noncitizens as of December 31, 2002. Federal civilian employees in U.S. territories were mostly U.S. citizens. Federal civilian employment in foreign countries consisted of 48,636 U.S. citizens and 25,690 noncitizens. U.S. citizenship of employees by agency is shown by foreign country on Table 6 and by U.S. territory on Table 7.

Since December 2000, employment in foreign countries rose slightly, up 862 or +1.2 percent; U.S. citizens increased by 1,064 or +2.2 percent due to the State Department while noncitizens dropped by 202 or -0.8 percent due to the Defense Department. Federal civilian employment in U.S. territories grew by 967 or +5.4 percent; U.S. citizens increased by 975 or +5.4 percent due to the Department of Transportation while the noncitizens decreased by 8.

Major Agencies

About two-thirds of Federal civilian employees worked in three large agencies: U.S. Postal Service (881,491 or 31.5 percent); Department of Defense (675,349 or 24.1 percent); and the Department of Veterans Affairs (224,472 or 8.0 percent). These agencies have employment in all States as shown in the table on the preceding page. Defense Department employment was more concentrated in coastal States partly due to naval installations. With their service delivery responsibilities, the U.S. Postal Service and Department of Veterans Affairs employment distributions more closely reflected the Nation's general population distribution. Table 1 lists each agency with Federal civilian employment totals for all areas as well as for the United States. Employment in larger agencies is shown in Table 4 by Metropolitan Statistical Area and in Table 5 by State and county.

Since December 2002, the Department of Defense reduced slightly overall, down 688 or -0.1 percent. However, the Department restructured somewhat with Army up 3,134 or +1.4 percent, Navy up 2,385 or +1.3 percent, and Air Force up up 515 or +0.3 percent while Defense Logistics Agency dropped 1,672 or -7.0 percent and other Defense activities dropped 5,050 or -5.9 percent. The U.S. Postal Service continued to decline, losing 75,083 or -7.8 percent. The Department of Veterans Affairs gained 4,280 or +1.9 percent. The Department of Transportation more than doubled in size, increasing by 71,139 or +111.6 percent due to the creation of its new Transpor-tation Security Administration. Employment in all the other agencies (one-third of all Federal civilian employees) expanded by 34,127 or +4.0 percent.

Other agencies with sizeable increases included the Judicial Branch (+2,511 or +7.9 percent) and the Departments of Health and Human Services (+7,371 or +11.5 percent), Justice (+6,556 or +5.2 percent), Agriculture (+6,223 or +6.7 percent), Treasury (+5,303 or +4.0 percent), Interior (+3,005 or +4.8 percent), and State (+2,641 or +9.2 percent). The two agencies with sizeable decreases were Tennessee Valley Authority (-1,785 or -13.7 percent) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (-1,167 or -17.4 percent).

Pay Systems

About half (46.0 percent or 1,287,964) of Federal civil servants were paid under the General Schedule as of December 31, 2002. Postal pay plans covered a third (31.5 percent or 881,537). Wage systems for blue-collar workers covered 7.6 percent (212,358). The remaining 14.9 percent (417,808) were mostly white-collar workers paid under various other pay plans.

The employment distributions by pay system were similar for Federal employment in the United States and U.S. territories. In foreign countries, the Foreign Service raised the percentage of employment in "other" pay plans, while there were fewer General Schedule, fewer wage, and no postal employees there. The Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area had proportionately higher white-collar employment with 217,341 or 63.4 percent General Schedule; 13,382 or 3.9 percent wage systems; 24,048 or 7.0 percent postal pay plans; and 88,157 or 25.7 percent in other (mostly white-collar) pay plans. Pay system distributions are shown on Table 1 by agency for all areas as well as for the United States, on Table 2 for metropolitan statistical areas, and on Table 3 for States.

Pay system distribution changes were much larger than the overall increase of 1.2 percent since December 2000 with General Schedule employment up 33,861 (+2.7 percent), wage systems down 8,401 (-3.8 percent), postal pay systems down 75,088 (-7.8 percent), and "other" pay systems up 83,403 (+24.9 percent) mostly in the new Transportation Security Administration.

Work Schedules

Most (88.5 percent) Federal civil servants nationwide worked a full-time work schedule, usually a 40-hour workweek. Another 5.6 percent worked part-time on a regular schedule such as 4 hours each workday and the remaining 6.0 percent worked an intermittent schedule (working only as needed) such as forest fire fighters.

The table on the previous page presents Federal civilian employment within the United States by State and work schedule (excluding most seasonal employees) as of December 31, 2002. Full-time employment as a percent of total employment ranged from 95.9 percent in the District of Columbia, 93.7 percent in Virginia, and 92.7 percent in Hawaii to 74.7 percent in New Hamp-shire, 80.1 percent in Wisconsin, and 81.3 percent in Iowa.

Two-thirds of part-time and intermittent employees nationwide worked for the U.S. Postal Service (67.7 percent or 210,776). The other major employers of part-timers were the Departments of Veterans Affairs (18,427); Defense (13,554); Agriculture (3,856); Treasury (2,735); Justice (2,706); and Interior (2,629) as well as the Social Security Administration (2,818). Other major agency employers of intermittent workers were the Departments of Health and Human Services (9,524); Agriculture (4,589); Veterans Affairs (4,125); Defense (3,759); Commerce (3,388); Treasury (3,355); and Interior (2,943) as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (3,530).

Since December 2000, total Federal civilian employment in the United States increased by 31,946 (+1.2 percent). Full-time employment expanded by 78,892 or 3.4 percent due mostly to 67,415 in the new Transportation Security Administration. The U.S. Postal Service caused the declines in part-time employment (down 13,368 or -8.2 percent) and intermittent employment (down 33,578 or -17.2 percent).

Seasonal Workforces

Since this report includes employment on the specific date of December 31, 2002, all tables exclude seasonal employees except for 13,589 working in December for the Department of Defense Education Activity. However, since other seasonal employees make up a significant part of the workforce for some agencies and States during the year, we have included this special section on the seasonal workforces.

Seasonal employees work less than 12 months a year on an annually recurring basis; seasonal employees may work a full-time, part-time, or intermittent work schedule when on duty. Examples of seasonal employees are school teachers and outdoor workers.

Various agencies have different seasonal workforces. Treasury's Internal Revenue Service employees work mostly during tax season in the first half of the year while the Department of Defense Education Activity and Interior's Indian Schools employees work a school year. Weather is the seasonal factor for some agencies; seasonal employees in National Parks, National Forests, and Bureau of Land Management worked more in the warmer months. Seasonal employees worked throughout the year at Commerce's Census Bureau, Justice's Immigration and Naturalization Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Agricultural Marketing Service, and Naval Sea Systems Command.

Seasonal employment data were reviewed for March 2002, June 2002, September 2002, and December 2002; the largest employment numbers for any of the four reporting dates are presented on the following "Calendar Year 2002 Peak Seasonal Workforce" table. For example, the Internal Revenue Service had 3,101 seasonal employees in California in March; 1,312 in June; 655 in September; and 840 in December, so we showed the largest total of 3,101 in the table. The table on page 13 thus presents the Calendar Year 2002 largest seasonal workforces by State, with a U.S. territory total, foreign country total, and grand total. Each agency total was figured independently and then added to make the grand total. Note:These data exclude the U.S. Postal Service, Tennessee Valley Authority, and several other smaller agencies that do not participate in the Central Personnel Data File.

During peak employment periods throughout 2002, there were a total of 78,053 seasonal employees. During their seasonal periods, 79.0 percent worked full-time, 10.5 percent worked part-time, and 10.5 percent worked an intermittent work schedule.

Since 2000, peak seasonal employment grew by 4,167 or +5.6 percent due to increases in the Internal Revenue Services (+5,935) and National Forests (+2,655) which overcame the cutbacks in Census Bureau (-3,490) and Defense Education Activity (-2,293). The percentages by work schedule changed slightly, with more full-time and fewer intermittents.

Most seasonal employees worked for the Internal Revenue Service (34,096 or 43.7 percent of the 78,053 peak seasonal employees); Agriculture Department's Forest Service (12,861 or 16.5 percent) shown as "National Forests"; or in schools operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity (14,496 or 18.6 percent) and the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs (4,654 or 6.0 percent) shown as "Indian Schools."

Internal Revenue Service employed 34,096 seasonals in most States with 3,486 in Pennsyl-vania; 3,291 in New York; 3,101 in California; 3,042 in Texas; 2,747 in Kentucky; 2,673 in Utah; 2,666 in Tennessee; 2,581 in Georgia; 2,361 in Missouri; 2,016 in Oregon; 1,845 in Massa-chusetts; and 1,329 in South Dakota. Census Bureau had 474 seasonals, almost all in Indiana. Immigration and Naturalization Service had 448 seasonals in many locations; 102 of these were in New York.

The 14,496 seasonals in the Department of Defense Education Activity were mostly located overseas, primarily in Germany (4,909); Japan (2,792); Great Britain (837), Italy (705); and South Korea (605). The 4,645 seasonals in American Indian schools were mostly in New Mexico (1,754) and Arizona (1,230).

The 1,868 seasonal employees working in the National Parks were located throughout the United States and U.S. territories while the 12,861 working in National Forests were primarily located in the Pacific Northwest: 2,610 in California; 2,001 in Idaho; 1,582 in Oregon; 1,247 in Washington; 1,104 in Montana; and 1,002 in Utah. Bureau of Land Mangement had 903 seasonals including 200 in Oregon, 172 in Alaska, and 152 in Idaho. Army Corps of Engineers had 921 seasonals with 172 in Mississippi, 97 in Wisconsin, 96 in Tennessee, and 92 in Pennsylvania.

Agricultural Marketing Service had 2,742 seasonal employees with 662 in Texas, 516 in Tennessee, and 342 in Arkansas. Naval Sea Systems Command had 1,259 seasonals with 745 in Washington, 287 in Maine, and 225 in Virginia.

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