Accounting
Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Accounting occupation series (code 0510), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (June 2026).
The verdict
In the Accounting and Budget Group family, Accounting counts 8,731 employees, a mid-sized federal occupation at 0.4% of the federal civilian workforce, and headcount declined from the prior period; pay averages $145,658, which pays above the federal-wide average.
- Headcount change
- -22.4%
- Pay change
- -0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 16.1 yrs
- Rank in family
- #4 of 18
FedScope read on Accounting (dense series)
On pay, the move between reporting periods was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change. On length of service, this series shows a long average tenure, typical of career federal roles where employees stay through much of a full career before retirement. Headcount moved down versus the prior period, a useful gauge for job seekers on USAJOBS trying to assess whether this role is expanding government-wide or contracting under hiring freezes and attrition.
Accounting sits inside the Accounting and Budget Group family (code 05), which contains 18 related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Accounting postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Accounting and Budget Group family. The Accounting and Budget Group family totals 86,835 employees, and Accounting accounts for 10.1% of them. Its average salary ranks in the top half (81st percentile) of pay among Accounting and Budget Group occupations.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Accounting pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$145,658
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+24.1%
Where Accounting ranks on rich federal pay
Accounting earns more on average than 86% of federal occupation series (464 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Accounting sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Accounting.
Related Occupations in Accounting and Budget Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Administration and Program | 25,018 | $114,904 | 15.9 yrs |
| Budget Analysis | 12,255 | $131,861 | 16.8 yrs |
| Tax Examining | 10,631 | $56,610 | 10.9 yrs |
| Internal Revenue Agent | 7,678 | n/a | 13.6 yrs |
| Auditing | 5,808 | $144,351 | 17 yrs |
| Financial Clerical and Assistance | 5,304 | $56,817 | 10.7 yrs |
| Financial Institution Examining | 4,728 | $168,883 | 15.2 yrs |
| Accounting Technician | 1,754 | $61,366 | 12.3 yrs |
| Financial Management | 1,049 | $166,042 | 21.6 yrs |
| Military Pay | 738 | $63,334 | 11.7 yrs |
Nationwide peers near this dense headcount
Two peer sets for Accounting outside the Accounting and Budget Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar dense headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (8,731 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($145,658 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Accounting pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Accounting and Budget Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Accounting postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.