PlainGovJobs

About PlainGovJobs

Our Mission

The federal government is the largest employer in the United States, yet understanding what federal employment actually looks like — which agencies are hiring, what they pay, where the jobs are, and how the workforce is changing — requires navigating dense OPM datasets designed for analysts, not job seekers or citizens. We believe this information should be accessible to everyone.

We built PlainGovJobs because we believe that transparency about public sector employment serves the public interest. Whether you are considering a career in federal service, researching workforce trends, or simply curious about how your tax dollars fund the civilian workforce, you deserve clear, searchable access to the same data that policymakers and government analysts use.

PlainGovJobs covers 115 federal agencies, 634 occupation series, all 50 states plus territories, and monthly workforce dynamics data. We present the data as OPM publishes it — no custom rankings, "best agencies to work for" lists, or editorial spin. The data speaks for itself.

Our users include prospective federal employees researching agencies and occupations, journalists covering government workforce issues, academics studying public administration, and citizens who want to understand the size, composition, and cost of the federal workforce.

What We Track

PlainGovJobs organizes federal workforce data into several browsable categories:

  • Agencies — All 115 federal agencies with employee counts, sub-agency breakdowns, average salaries, occupation mix, and geographic presence across states
  • States — Federal employment by state including employee counts, average salaries, top agencies present, and workforce dynamics
  • Occupations — 634 federal occupation codes grouped into 60 occupation families with salary data and agency distribution
  • Pay Grades — GS pay scale distribution showing employee counts and average salaries by grade, with step-level detail from OPM pay tables
  • Demographics — Workforce composition by age group and education level across agencies and states
  • Workforce Dynamics — Monthly accession (hiring) and separation data by type, including quits, retirements, RIFs, and terminations

Our Data Sources

All data on PlainGovJobs comes from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope dataset, the most comprehensive public source of federal civilian workforce information. FedScope is published by OPM under the Federal Workforce Data initiative.

We use three primary FedScope data products:

  • Employment Summary — Point-in-time snapshots (March 2025 and September 2024) covering employee counts, agency assignments, occupation codes, pay grades, geographic distribution, demographics, and length of service
  • Accessions (Dynamics) — Monthly records of employees entering federal service from April 2024 through March 2025, including new hires, transfers in, and rehires, broken down by agency and type
  • Separations (Dynamics) — Monthly records of employees leaving federal service during the same period, including quits, retirements, RIFs, terminations, and transfers out

We also incorporate General Schedule (GS) pay tables published by OPM to provide salary context for each pay grade level. The GS system covers the majority of federal white-collar employees across 15 grades and 10 steps per grade.

All data is downloaded from the official OPM FedScope data portal. FedScope products are distributed as ZIP archives containing delimited flat files with coded dimension tables that require specialized processing to interpret.

How We Process the Data

Our ETL pipeline downloads the FedScope data products as ZIP archives, then processes them through several stages:

  • Parsing and Assembly — FedScope ships data as cross-tabulated cubes with coded dimension tables. We join employee records to all dimension lookup tables, translating coded values into human-readable agency names, occupation titles, and location labels
  • Agency Profiles — For each of the 115 federal agencies, we compute workforce size, average salary, median grade level, occupation mix, sub-agency breakdown, and geographic distribution across states
  • State Profiles — Federal employment data is organized by state, showing which agencies have the largest presence in each state, average salaries by location, and workforce dynamics
  • Occupation Processing — All 634 federal occupation series are parsed, grouped into 60 occupation families, and linked to salary data and agency distribution statistics
  • Dynamics Processing — Monthly accession and separation files are parsed and linked to agency and state dimensions, enabling workforce flow analysis (hiring rates, quit rates, retirement waves)
  • Rankings — State and agency rankings are computed across six categories including employee count, average salary, hiring rate, and workforce growth
  • Indexing — Sixteen performance indexes optimize queries by agency slug, state code, occupation family, pay grade, and dynamics period

All salary figures are national averages as published by OPM. We do not apply locality pay adjustments, inflation corrections, or any statistical modeling to the underlying numbers.

The dynamics processing pipeline preserves month-by-month granularity, enabling users to track hiring and separation trends over time and identify seasonal or policy-driven patterns in workforce flows.

Data Currency

OPM publishes FedScope data semi-annually for employment snapshots (March and September) and monthly for workforce dynamics. The current data on PlainGovJobs reflects the March 2025 employment snapshot and dynamics through March 2025.

We monitor OPM's publication schedule and update our database when new snapshots are released. FedScope data is typically published with a two-to-three month delay from the reference period.

Workforce dynamics data has a shorter publication lag than snapshot data, typically appearing one to two months after the reference period. We incorporate both snapshot and dynamics updates on each refresh cycle.

Editorial Independence

Content on PlainGovJobs is compiled by our editorial team. Raw data from BLS, DOL, EEOC, and related labor agencies is transformed into readable profiles by our continuous editorial pipeline, validated against the source before publication. The PlainGovJobs editorial team, operating under Kiznis Studio, is responsible for editorial standards, methodology, and corrections.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from employers, agencies, or any labor-market entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense — advertisers do not influence which entities we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Limitations and Disclaimers

PlainGovJobs is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management or any federal agency. This site is for informational purposes only.

  • Civilian employees only — FedScope covers the civilian federal workforce. Active-duty military personnel, reservists, and National Guard members are not included in employee counts or salary figures
  • Intelligence community gaps — Some agencies, particularly intelligence community components and certain DoD elements, may have incomplete or suppressed data for national security reasons
  • Salary figures are national averages — Reported salaries do not reflect locality pay adjustments, which can add 15-40% depending on the geographic area. Actual pay in high-cost areas will be higher than shown
  • Publication delay — FedScope data is published with a lag of two to three months. Rapid workforce changes may not be reflected until the next release
  • No individual identification — FedScope is aggregated data. We do not identify or profile any individual federal employee
  • Postal Service varies — The U.S. Postal Service has its own pay system and reporting structure, and its inclusion varies by FedScope data product

We present publicly available government data and do not provide employment advice. Verify current openings and salaries at USAJOBS.gov.

Contact

Questions, feedback, or data inquiries? Reach out at hello@plaingovjobs.com. We welcome inquiries from job seekers, researchers, journalists, and government employees.

PlainGovJobs is published by ", a data intelligence company that builds free, public-interest data portals. We transform complex government datasets into accessible, searchable resources for researchers, journalists, policymakers, and the public.