Cooking

What the Numbers Say About Cooking

Federal agencies employ 3,905 people in the Cooking occupation (OPM code 7404), accounting for 0.2% of the total federal civilian workforce of 2,289,472 for the March 2025 reporting window. Headcount in this occupation moved down by -1.7% versus the prior period, a modest but trackable signal for anyone considering this specialized federal career path.

Cooking pays $68,728 per year on average, 37.4% below the $109,869 federal civilian average, after moving up 1.8% from the prior period (a modest shift, consistent with routine locality pay and grade-level movement). Employees in this role stay an average of 11.4 years, a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career.

Cooking sits inside the Food Preparation and Serving Family family (code 74), which contains 4 related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Cooking postings should also review these sibling occupations, since federal hiring managers often cross-post positions across closely related codes when recruitment is difficult. All figures here come directly from OPM FedScope Employment Cubes, the same official source referenced in federal workforce planning, budget justifications, and GAO reports.

Within the Food Preparation and Serving Family family, Cooking is one of the top 4 occupations by headcount (#2), accounting for 35.7% of the family's combined 10,934 employees. Its average salary ranks in the top half (75th percentile) of pay among Food Preparation and Serving Family occupations.