General Engineering

What the Numbers Say About General Engineering

As of the March 2025 reporting window, 34,563 people work in the General Engineering occupation (OPM code 801) across federal agencies, 1.5% of the 2,289,472-strong federal civilian workforce. Headcount moved up by 0.5% from 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.

General Engineering pays $150,930 per year on average, 37.4% above the $109,869 federal civilian average, after moving up 2.1% from the prior period (a broad shift as locality pay tables and grade-level adjustments moved through the workforce). Employees in this role stay an average of 14.9 years, a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career.

The Engineering and Architecture Group family (code 8) groups General Engineering together with 28 other related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for General Engineering 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 Engineering and Architecture Group family, General Engineering is the single largest occupation by headcount, accounting for 24.3% of the family's combined 142,526 employees. Its average salary ranks in the top half (97th percentile) of pay among Engineering and Architecture Group occupations.