Public Affairs
Everything OPM FedScope (June 2026) reports about the Public Affairs occupation series (code 1035): headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison.
The verdict
In the Information and Arts Group family, Public Affairs counts 5,552 employees, a smaller, specialized federal occupation at 0.3% of the federal civilian workforce, and headcount declined from the prior period; pay averages $129,060, which pays above the federal-wide average.
- Headcount change
- -2.4%
- Pay change
- +0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 14.3 yrs
- Rank in family
- #1 of 19
FedScope read on Public Affairs (dense series)
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. Pay moved up between the two reporting periods, 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 mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career.
Public Affairs sits inside the Information and Arts Group family (code 10), which contains 19 related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Public Affairs postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Information and Arts Group family. The Information and Arts Group family totals 14,755 employees, and Public Affairs accounts for 37.6% of them. Its average salary ranks in the top half (89th percentile) of pay among Information and Arts Group occupations.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Public Affairs pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$129,060
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+10.0%
Where Public Affairs ranks on rich federal pay
Public Affairs earns more on average than 74% of federal occupation series (402 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Public Affairs sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Public Affairs.
Related Occupations in Information and Arts Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Arts and Information | 2,759 | $126,733 | 14.5 yrs |
| Visual Information | 1,245 | $110,638 | 15.6 yrs |
| Language Specialist | 864 | $117,705 | 11.8 yrs |
| Technical Writing and Editing | 816 | $128,063 | 14.1 yrs |
| Writing and Editing | 760 | $138,055 | 15.2 yrs |
| Museum Specialist and Technician | 657 | $91,362 | 13.8 yrs |
| Audiovisual Production | 619 | $128,404 | 16 yrs |
| Museum Curator | 490 | $125,118 | 17.5 yrs |
| Interior Design | 355 | $105,579 | 11 yrs |
| Exhibits Specialist | 268 | $103,348 | 16.7 yrs |
Nationwide peers near this dense headcount
Two peer sets for Public Affairs outside the Information and Arts 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 (5,552 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($129,060 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Public Affairs 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 Information and Arts Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Public Affairs 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.