| Year | Exec | Postal | Ex+Post | ActMil | Total | SubDef | SubCivilian | U.S. Pop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 1.9 | .4 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 5.2 | 4.1 | 1.1 | 166 |
| 1960 | 1.8 | .4 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 4.7 | 3.5 | 1.2 | 181 |
| 1965 | 1.9 | .4 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 5.0 | 3.7 | 1.3 | 194 |
| 1970 | 2.2 | .5 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 5.9 | 4.3 | 1.6 | 206 |
| 1975 | 2.1 | .6 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 4.9 | 3.2 | 1.7 | 216 |
| 1980 | 2.2 | .5 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 4.8 | 3.0 | 1.8 | 227 |
| 1985 | 2.3 | .7 | 3.0 | 2.2 | 5.2 | 3.3 | 1.9 | 238 |
| 1990 | 2.3 | .8 | 3.1 | 2.1 | 5.1 | 3.1 | 2.0 | 250 |
| 1995 | 2.0 | .8 | 2.8 | 1.5 | 4.3 | 2.3 | 2.0 | 265 |
| 2000 | 1.8 | .8 | 2.6 | 1.4 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 282 |
| 2005 | 1.9 | .7 | 2.6 | 1.4 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 295 |
| 2010 | 2.1 | .6 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 4.2 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 309 |
| 2015 | 2.1 | .5 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 4.0 | 2.1 | 1.9 | 321 |
| 2020 | 2.2 | .5 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 4.1 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 331 |
| Year | Exec | Postal | Ex+Post | ActMil | Total | SubDef | SubCivilian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 1.1% | .22% | 1.4% | 1.8% | 3.1% | 2.5% | .64% |
| 1960 | 1.0% | .23% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 2.6% | 2.0% | .66% |
| 1965 | 1.0% | .23% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 2.6% | 1.9% | .69% |
| 1970 | 1.1% | .27% | 1.4% | 1.5% | 2.8% | 2.1% | .76% |
| 1975 | 1.0% | .26% | 1.3% | 1.0% | 2.3% | 1.5% | .79% |
| 1980 | 1.0% | .24% | 1.2% | 0.9% | 2.1% | 1.3% | .79% |
| 1985 | 1.0% | .30% | 1.3% | 0.9% | 2.2% | 1.4% | .80% |
| 1990 | 0.9% | .30% | 1.2% | 0.8% | 2.1% | 1.2% | .82% |
| 1995 | 0.8% | .28% | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1.6% | 0.9% | .76% |
| 2000 | 0.6% | .28% | 0.9% | 0.5% | 1.4% | 0.7% | .70% |
| 2005 | 0.6% | .24% | 0.9% | 0.5% | 1.4% | 0.7% | .68% |
| 2010 | 0.7% | .19% | 0.9% | 0.5% | 1.4% | 0.7% | .65% |
| 2015 | 0.7% | .15% | 0.8% | 0.4% | 1.2% | 0.6% | .59% |
| 2020 | 0.7% | .15% | 0.8% | 0.4% | 1.3% | 0.6% | .62% |
All Employees, Federal (CES9091000001) | FRED | St. Louis Fed (stlouisfed.org)
All Employees, U.S. Postal Service (CES9091912001) | FRED | St. Louis Fed (stlouisfed.org)
US Population by Year (multpl.com)
DCAS Reports – Active Duty Deaths by Year and Manner (osd.mil)
U.S. Military Personnel 1954-2014: The Numbers (historyinpieces.com)
How Many People Does the U.S. Federal Government Employ? (historyinpieces.com)
Federal Workforce Statistics Sources: OPM and OMB (fas.org)
Executive Branch Civilian Employment Since 1940 (opm.gov)
Total Federal Government employment has ranged from 4-5 million across the last 65 years, from 1955, when post WW II changes were in effect until today, 2020.
While Federal Government jobs have been flat to down 20%, the U.S. population has doubled, from 166 million to 331 million people.
Hence, the ratio of federal jobs to population has dropped from 3.1% in 1955, or 2.6% in 1960-1965 to just 1.25% in 2020. The much maligned and mistrusted federal government is less than half as large, in relative terms, as it was from 1955-1965.
The detailed components are somewhat complex. The judicial and legislative branches have employed a relatively immaterial 30,000 to 66,000 during this time, doubling with the population.
The Executive Branch includes both the Department of Defense and other civilian agencies. It does not include active military employees. It typically does not include the postal service (USPS), which is seen as a truly independent agency. The Executive Branch started with 1.860 M employees and ended with 2.206 M in 2020. The low was 1.778 M in 2000 and the high was 2.252 M in 1990. In rough terms, flat employment for 65 years. As a percentage of the population, it has ranged from 1.12% to 0.65%, declining throughout the period.
The postal service started with 367,000 in 1955, grew to 761,000 in 1990, flattened out for 1995-2000, before declining to 492,000 in 2015 and 496,000 in 2020. So, we have a doubling in the first 45 years, adding 400,000 staff, followed by a reduction of one-quarter million in the last 20 years. As a percentage of the population, it grew from 0.22% to 0.30%, before declining to 0.15% in 2015-2020.
Combining the executive, legislative, judicial and postal branches, we get a subtotal that excludes the active military category. This is what most people think of as “federal” employees. This started at 2.3 M in 1955, grew to 3.1 M in 1990 before settling down a bit to 2.8 M in 2020. As a percentage of the population, it began at 1.36% and ended at 0.84%. This is a 38% reduction, removing more than 0.5% of the population from government employment.
The active military population has declined from 2.9M in 1955 and 3.1M in 1970 (Vietnam winding down) to 1.4M in 2000 (peace dividend), where it has remained. As a percentage of the population, this function declined from 1.77% in 1955 to 0.99% in 1975 to 0.49% in 2000 to 0.42% today. This is a 3/4ths reduction. moving 1.25% of the population out of military service.
The “Total” column shows the 5.2M start and 4.2M end. The percent of population falls from 3.13% down to 1.25%. The Federal Government is a much smaller employer today than in the “post-war” era.
The next column combines the Department of Defense in the Executive Branch with the active military to give a total military. This does not include the Veterans Affairs or Department of Homeland Security which serve quasi-military functions. We start with 4.1M in 1955, touch 4.3M in 1970, fall to 3.2M in 1975 and 2.0M in 2000, ending at 2.1M in 2020. The percentage of populations falls from 2.5% down to 0.6%.
The remaining federal employees began with 1.1 M in 1955 and grew fairly constantly to 2.0M in 1990, remaining flat for the next 30 years, ending at 2.05M in 2020. As a percentage of the population, this measure started at 0.64%, peaked at 0.82% in 1990 and has since declined to 0.62%, just below where it started.
After the Clinton/congress budget compromises in the mid-1990’s, criticism of the size and growth of Federal employment quieted down for the next 2 decades. Some criticism has restarted, as Federal agencies have increased the amount and variety of outsourcing employed through contracting and grants. The main summary shows that “contract” employees, those who work directly on Federal contracts, have been in the 3-5 million range since 1985. It reports that grant funded employees have been 1-2 million per year. The total is 4-7 million, the same order of magnitude as “regular” federal employment. I was unable to find comparable numbers for the 1955-1980 timeframe, so cannot be sure that this category has grown faster than the U.S. population. My guess is that there is some degree of “employee shifting” from regular to contracted employment. A subset of this is probably politically motivated, to please congressional oversight committees. On the other hand, corporate America discovered outsourcing to foreign factories and specialized firms in the 1980’s and probably moved 15-25% of jobs out of the Fortune 500. At one point, firms like GM and AT&T had 1 million employees.
Public service and the federal government (brookings.edu)
How big is the federal workforce? Much bigger than you think. – The Washington Post
The True Size of Government | The Volcker Alliance
The true size of government is nearing a record high (brookings.edu)
The sheer size of our government workforce is an alarming problem | TheHill
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