General Attorney

What the Numbers Say About General Attorney

1.9% of the federal civilian workforce (2,289,472 employees total, March 2025) works in the General Attorney occupation (OPM code 905): 43,533 people, headcount down -1.7% 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.

The average salary for General Attorney is $170,777 per year, placing it 55.4% above the overall federal civilian average of $109,869. Salaries moved up by 1.9% from the prior period, a modest shift, consistent with routine locality pay and grade-level movement. Average length of service in this role is 12.4 years, a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career.

Code 9, the Legal and Kindred Group family, is where the federal government classifies General Attorney alongside 17 related occupations. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for General Attorney 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.

Inside the Legal and Kindred Group family (18 occupations, 133,580 employees combined), General Attorney holds the #1 spot by headcount, a 32.6% share of the family total. Its average salary ranks in the top half (89th percentile) of pay among Legal and Kindred Group occupations.