Department of Transportation
Headcount, average pay, length of service, sub-agencies, and hiring trends for Department of Transportation, drawn directly from the OPM Federal Workforce Data (June 2026).
OPM FedScope stock folio
Employment stock June 2026 Department of Transportation
Department of Transportation is a major federal employer: 52,923 employees (2.7% of the federal civilian workforce) across 51 states (including DC). At an average salary of $143,624 it pays above the federal average of $117,339, and headcount grew 0.4% from the prior period.
Monthly FedScope employment stock for Department of Transportation - headcount, pay, tenure, and nearest peer names from the same OPM extract (52,923 employees · $143,624 avg).
- HEAD 52,923
- RANK #12/126
- PAY $143,624
- LOS 15.2 yrs
- SHARE 2.7%
- STATES 51
- NET +169
- SUBS 11
- PHOTO Social Security Administrati
- BOOK OPM FWD
Headcount peers
Photo peer: Social Security Administration (49,439 employees)
According to OPM FedScope June 2026, Department of Transportation ranks #12 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 Transportation
How Department of Transportation pay compares to the federal average of $117,339.
Sub-agencies by average pay band
Employees counted under the sub-agency whose average salary falls in each band, not an individual pay distribution. Covers 52,923 of Department of Transportation's staff assigned to mapped sub-agencies.
- $80k–$100k: 117 (0%)
- $100k–$120k: 1,019 (2%)
- $120k–$150k: 50,412 (95%)
- $150k+: 1,375 (3%)
Agency Average
$143,624
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+22.4%
Where Department of Transportation ranks on pay
Ranked by agency (not weighted by headcount), its average salary of $143,624 is higher than 44% of the 121 federal agencies (53 pay less on average). Smaller specialized agencies often post higher per-employee averages than large ones like Department of Transportation, 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 Transportation sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 121 federal agencies; Department of Transportation ranks higher than 44%.
Sub-agency pay span (dense agency)
Under $80K
0
$80K–$100K
117
$100K–$120K
1,019
$120K–$150K
50,412
Over $150K
1,375
Sub-agencies & Organizational Units
Department of Transportation has 11 sub-agencies. The highest-paying unit averages $157,275.
| Sub-agency | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Aviation Administration | 44,660 | $144,618 | 15.2 yrs |
| Federal Highway Administration | 1,994 | $135,286 | 17.4 yrs |
| Office of the Secretary of Transportation | 1,544 | $146,885 | 14.5 yrs |
| Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration | 1,019 | $119,354 | 14.5 yrs |
| Federal Railroad Administration | 952 | $136,757 | 15.2 yrs |
| Maritime Administration | 714 | $131,597 | 15.4 yrs |
| Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration | 548 | $143,174 | 14.1 yrs |
| National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | 542 | $157,275 | 14.9 yrs |
| Federal Transit Administration | 510 | $153,731 | 15.7 yrs |
| Office of Inspector General | 323 | $152,562 | 17.3 yrs |
| Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation | 117 | $92,493 | 12.4 yrs |
Geographic Presence
Department of Transportation has employees in 51 states (including DC). District of Columbia has the most with 6,148 employees.
| State | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 6,148 | $154,130 | 15.1 yrs |
| Texas | 4,463 | $145,229 | 16 yrs |
| California | 3,656 | $156,602 | 15.2 yrs |
| Oklahoma | 2,984 | $122,922 | 16.5 yrs |
| Florida | 2,848 | $143,761 | 15.1 yrs |
| Georgia | 2,438 | $148,932 | 16.7 yrs |
| New York | 2,239 | $147,352 | 14.2 yrs |
| Virginia | 2,042 | $162,004 | 16 yrs |
| Washington | 1,941 | $145,585 | 15.6 yrs |
| Illinois | 1,804 | $152,134 | 14.7 yrs |
| New Jersey | 1,573 | $154,456 | 16.7 yrs |
| Colorado | 1,441 | $150,002 | 14.9 yrs |
| Ohio | 1,183 | $144,262 | 14.5 yrs |
| Alaska | 1,090 | $134,526 | 13.1 yrs |
| Tennessee | 983 | $137,014 | 14.1 yrs |
| Minnesota | 926 | $154,606 | 14.2 yrs |
| Pennsylvania | 891 | $139,760 | 14.8 yrs |
| Indiana | 870 | $140,169 | 14.5 yrs |
| Massachusetts | 861 | $143,205 | 15.8 yrs |
| Michigan | 739 | $130,866 | 14 yrs |
Showing top 20 of 51 states
Workforce Dynamics
Dynamics feed (RSS)Monthly hiring and separation trends. Net change over 12 months: +169.
| Month | Accessions | Separations | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2026 | +455 | -282 | +173 |
| May 2026 | +15 | -24 | -9 |
| Apr 2026 | +4 | -2 | +2 |
| Mar 2026 | +1 | -1 | +0 |
| Feb 2026 | +0 | -1 | -1 |
| Jan 2026 | +2 | -0 | +2 |
| Dec 2025 | +0 | -3 | -3 |
| Oct 2025 | +2 | -0 | +2 |
| Sep 2025 | +4 | -3 | +1 |
| Jun 2025 | +1 | -0 | +1 |
| May 2025 | +0 | -1 | -1 |
| Feb 2025 | +2 | -0 | +2 |
vs Federal Hiring Climate
OPM FedScope dynamics for Jun 2026 — Department of Transportation against the same-month federal civilian totals (not a forecast).
Agency net (Jun 2026)
+173
+455 / −282
Federal net (Jun 2026)
+2,416
+15,984 / −13,568
Share of federal accessions
2.85%
Moved with the federal climate this month
Hiring & Separation Reasons
Why employees join and leave Department of Transportation
Accession Reasons
NEW HIRE - EXCEPTED SERVICE APPOINTMENT
461
NEW HIRE - COMPETITIVE SERVICE APPOINTMENT
21
TRANSFER IN - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
11
Separation Reasons
RETIREMENT - VOLUNTARY
133
QUIT
81
TERMINATION (EXPIRED APPT/OTHER)
57
OTHER SEPARATION
20
TRANSFER OUT - INDIVIDUAL TRANSFER
18
Sub-agencies by average tenure
Agency-wide average length of service is 15.2 years. Counts below are employees in sub-agencies whose average tenure falls in each band, not how many individuals have that length of service.
Sub-agency avg under 5 yrs
0
Sub-agency avg 5–10 yrs
0
Sub-agency avg 10–15 yrs
3,770
Sub-agency avg 15–20 yrs
49,153
Sub-agency avg over 20 yrs
0
Similar-Sized Agencies
Federal agencies with a similar workforce size to Department of Transportation
Showing 6 of 125 other federal agencies.
Social Security Administration
Department of Interior
Department of Commerce
Department of Defense
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Agriculture
Nationwide agencies with similar pay or tenure
Two peer sets for Department of Transportation 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 ($143,624 here).
Peers near this dense headcount tenure
Nearest agency-wide average length of service (15.2 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 Transportation'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 Transportation'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.