{"id":222587,"date":"2025-04-10T13:41:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T17:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?post_type=short-read&p=222587"},"modified":"2025-04-10T13:53:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T17:53:20","slug":"what-we-know-about-veterans-who-work-for-the-federal-government","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2025\/04\/10\/what-we-know-about-veterans-who-work-for-the-federal-government\/","title":{"rendered":"What we know about veterans who work for the federal government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As of September 2024, more than 700,000 veterans worked in various federal departments and agencies \u2013 making up nearly a quarter of the federal government\u2019s entire civilian workforce. By comparison, veterans account for just 5% of all employed Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though veterans are, at least in some cases<\/a>, more protected than other federal workers from layoffs, some veterans already have lost their jobs<\/a> in the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to slash federal payrolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a look at some facts and figures about the federal government\u2019s veteran workers \u2013 who they are, what they do and where they work. Most of our analysis is based on the Office of Personnel Management\u2019s FedScope data portal<\/a>, which contains data on nearly all executive-branch civilian employees (about 2.3 million as of September 2024, the most recent month available). Note that FedScope doesn\u2019t include U.S. Postal Service workers, congressional staffers, employees of various intelligence agencies, or presidential appointees who require Senate confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we did this<\/summary>\n

As the Trump administration continues its efforts to shrink and reshape the federal government, Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to learn more about a key component of the federal workforce: veterans of the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our primary source was the Office of Personnel Management\u2019s FedScope<\/a> data portal, which contains data on nearly all executive-branch civilian employees. The main exceptions are the U.S. Postal Service, congressional staffers, employees of the CIA and other intelligence agencies, and presidential appointees who require Senate confirmation. These figures also don\u2019t include the roughly 1.3 million active-duty military personnel<\/a>, who aren\u2019t typically considered \u201cemployees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To estimate how many veterans work for the Postal Service, we relied on that agency\u2019s annual reports to Congress (which gives the exact number of Postal Service employees as of Sept. 30 of each year) and its 10-K annual financial report (which says what percentage of its total workforce are veterans). Both sets of reports can be found on the Postal Service\u2019s Financials webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In calculating the veteran share of the federal workforce, we also used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a> on total federal employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our analysis of demographic differences between veteran and nonveteran federal workers, we can\u2019t report on racial and ethnic differences because as of early April, that data had been removed from FedScope and was not available elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

How many federal workers are veterans?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The federal government employed about 713,000 veterans at the end of fiscal 2024. That includes 642,652 at the executive-branch agencies covered in FedScope and more than 70,000 at the Postal Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, total federal employment in September 2024 (including the Postal Service) was 3,009,000, meaning veterans made up about 24% of all federal workers. These figures don\u2019t include the roughly 1.3 million active-duty military personnel<\/a>, who aren\u2019t typically considered \u201cemployees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Postal Service doesn\u2019t disclose detailed demographic information about its workers, veterans or otherwise, so the rest of this analysis focuses on data from FedScope, which does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has the share of veterans in federal jobs changed over time?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The share of veterans in non-Postal Service jobs has been fairly steady over the past 20 years. The high point was 31.6% in 2016 and 2017; the low, 27.8%, came in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past five years, veterans have made up 10% to 11% of the Postal Service\u2019s workforce, according to the agency\u2019s financial reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which federal agencies employ the most veterans?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among the largest agencies (those with at least 1,000 employees as of September 2024), veterans make up the biggest share of workers at the Defense Department and its subordinate military departments. Just over half of the 171,657 civilian workers (86,796) at the Department of the Air Force are veterans, as are nearly half (108,019) of the Department of the Army\u2019s 221,222 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quarter of the workforce at the Department of Veterans Affairs \u2013 the largest Cabinet-level agency, with nearly 483,000 employees \u2013 are themselves veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smaller agencies with military connections also employ large shares of veterans, including the Selective Service System (57% of its 162 workers) and the American Battle Monuments Commission (63% of its 78 employees).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But veterans also make up sizable shares of the workforce at agencies without direct military links. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n