Department of State
Headcount, average pay, length of service, sub-agencies, and hiring trends for Department of State, drawn directly from the OPM Federal Workforce Data (June 2026).
OPM FedScope stock folio
Employment stock June 2026 Department of State
Department of State is a mid-sized federal agency: 11,354 employees (0.6% of the federal civilian workforce) across 47 states (including DC). At an average salary of $137,896 it pays above the federal average of $117,339, and headcount declined 0.1% from the prior period.
Monthly FedScope employment stock for Department of State - headcount, pay, tenure, and nearest peer names from the same OPM extract (11,354 employees · $137,896 avg).
- HEAD 11,354
- RANK #18/126
- PAY $137,896
- LOS 15 yrs
- SHARE 0.6%
- STATES 47
- NET -69
- SUBS 1
- PHOTO Department of Labor
- BOOK OPM FWD
Headcount peers
Photo peer: Department of Labor (11,041 employees)
According to OPM FedScope June 2026, Department of State ranks #18 of 126 federal agencies by headcount (the same employee_count ordering as our agencies directory and /rankings/largest-agencies). Peer bars use similar workforce size, not duty-station geography. Corpus placement →
Salary Analysis · Department of State
How Department of State pay compares to the federal average of $117,339.
Agency Average
$137,896
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+17.5%
Where Department of State ranks on pay
Ranked by agency (not weighted by headcount), its average salary of $137,896 is higher than 38% of the 121 federal agencies (46 pay less on average). Smaller specialized agencies often post higher per-employee averages than large ones like Department of State, so this agency-count rank can differ from a comparison to the government-wide, employee-weighted average shown above. The highlighted bar marks where Department of State sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 121 federal agencies; Department of State ranks higher than 38%.
Sub-agency pay span (dense agency)
Under $80K
0
$80K–$100K
0
$100K–$120K
0
$120K–$150K
11,354
Over $150K
0
Sub-agencies & Organizational Units
Department of State has 1 sub-agencies. The highest-paying unit averages $137,896.
| Sub-agency | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of State | 11,354 | $137,896 | 15 yrs |
Geographic Presence
Department of State has employees in 47 states (including DC). District of Columbia has the most with 7,294 employees.
| State | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 7,294 | $149,443 | 15.5 yrs |
| South Carolina | 598 | $105,801 | 13.4 yrs |
| Virginia | 445 | $151,976 | 16.1 yrs |
| New Hampshire | 439 | $106,137 | 13.7 yrs |
| California | 218 | $115,138 | 12.9 yrs |
| Texas | 206 | $111,390 | 16 yrs |
| New York | 172 | $119,531 | 13 yrs |
| Arizona | 169 | $88,675 | 9.3 yrs |
| Florida | 141 | $118,576 | 16.3 yrs |
| Louisiana | 140 | $86,041 | 13.6 yrs |
| Washington | 101 | $108,453 | 13.4 yrs |
| Illinois | 82 | $103,848 | 12.7 yrs |
| Pennsylvania | 74 | $104,123 | 10.3 yrs |
| Georgia | 59 | $103,391 | 13.3 yrs |
| Colorado | 58 | $122,953 | 14.7 yrs |
| Massachusetts | 55 | $108,642 | 11.2 yrs |
| Minnesota | 41 | $89,564 | 7.1 yrs |
| Connecticut | 40 | $113,998 | 11.6 yrs |
| Michigan | 38 | $106,530 | 11.6 yrs |
| Maryland | 34 | $145,462 | 16.6 yrs |
Showing top 20 of 47 states
Workforce Dynamics
Dynamics feed (RSS)Monthly hiring and separation trends. Net change over 12 months: -69.
| Month | Accessions | Separations | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2026 | +68 | -72 | -4 |
| May 2026 | +14 | -29 | -15 |
| Apr 2026 | +0 | -2 | -2 |
| Mar 2026 | +0 | -2 | -2 |
| Dec 2025 | +1 | -1 | +0 |
| Nov 2025 | +1 | -3 | -2 |
| Oct 2025 | +0 | -30 | -30 |
| Sep 2025 | +6 | -27 | -21 |
| Aug 2025 | +0 | -6 | -6 |
| Jul 2025 | +4 | -0 | +4 |
| Jun 2025 | +12 | -2 | +10 |
| May 2025 | +0 | -1 | -1 |
vs Federal Hiring Climate
OPM FedScope dynamics for Jun 2026 — Department of State against the same-month federal civilian totals (not a forecast).
Agency net (Jun 2026)
-4
+68 / −72
Federal net (Jun 2026)
+2,416
+15,984 / −13,568
Share of federal accessions
0.43%
Moved against the federal climate this month
Hiring & Separation Reasons
Why employees join and leave Department of State
Accession Reasons
NEW HIRE - EXCEPTED SERVICE APPOINTMENT
76
NEW HIRE - COMPETITIVE SERVICE APPOINTMENT
29
NEW HIRE - SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE (SES) APPT
2
Separation Reasons
QUIT
47
REDUCTION IN FORCE (RIF)
43
RETIREMENT - VOLUNTARY
40
TERMINATION (EXPIRED APPT/OTHER)
20
TRANSFER OUT - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
17
Similar-Sized Agencies
Federal agencies with a similar workforce size to Department of State
Showing 6 of 125 other federal agencies.
Department of Labor
Environmental Protection Agency
Department of Energy
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
General Services Administration
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Nationwide agencies with similar pay or tenure
Two peer sets for Department of State on OPM FedScope averages that vary across the full agency corpus, not duty-station geography or sub-agency hierarchy.
Similar average salary
Nearest agency-wide average salaries ($137,896 here).
Peers near this dense headcount tenure
Nearest agency-wide average length of service (15 years here).
How these figures are calculated
The pay percentile above is computed live from PlainGovJobs' own OPM FedScope database, not hand-typed: Department of State's average salary is ranked against every other federal agency's average salary, agency-by-agency (not weighted by headcount), and the percentile is the share of agencies whose average is strictly lower.
The sub-agency pay-span bars sum each sub-agency's own employee_count into one of five salary bands based on that sub-agency's average salary; the bands add up exactly to Department of State's total employee count, since every sub-agency is counted in exactly one band.
See the methodology page for the full source-to-page pipeline and refresh cadence.
Data Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope Employment Cubes, June 2026. Federal civilian non-seasonal full-time and part-time employees. Data does not include military personnel, postal workers, or intelligence agency staff. Last updated: 2026-08-11.
Data currency: Employment stock from OPM Federal Workforce Data June 2026 (prior-period deltas vs May 2026); monthly hiring/separations from FWD Dynamics June 2024–June 2026 (filled civilian headcount and flows, not live USAJOBS vacancy listings). State pages sum only duty stations with a disclosed US state/DC code; 898,675 employees have redacted geography in the release and appear in the national total only. Database compiled 2026-08-11. See our methodology § populations for the three windows. Spot a figure that looks wrong? Report a correction.