Trade Specialist
Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Trade Specialist occupation series (code 1140), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (June 2026).
The verdict
With 487 employees (0.0% of the federal civilian workforce), Trade Specialist ranks as a smaller, specialized federal occupation within the Business and Industry Group family, and headcount edged down from the prior period. Its average salary of $146,967 pays well above the federal average.
- Headcount change
- -0.8%
- Pay change
- +0.3%
- Avg tenure
- 16.1 yrs
- Rank in family
- #13 of 25
What the Numbers Say About Trade Specialist
For job seekers weighing career length: 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, though at this small a headcount, year-to-year swings can reflect a handful of hires or departures rather than a broad hiring trend. As for pay, the latest move was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change.
Code 11, the Business and Industry Group family, is where the federal government classifies Trade Specialist alongside 24 related occupations. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Trade Specialist postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Business and Industry Group family. Trade Specialist makes up 0.6% of the Business and Industry Group family's 83,993 combined employees.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Trade Specialist pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$146,967
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+25.2%
Where Trade Specialist ranks on rich federal pay
Trade Specialist earns more on average than 87% of federal occupation series (468 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Trade Specialist sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Trade Specialist.
Related Occupations in Business and Industry Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contracting | 30,323 | $132,449 | 14.4 yrs |
| General Business and Industry | 25,675 | $123,489 | 14.9 yrs |
| Production Control | 5,015 | $99,508 | 14.6 yrs |
| Loan Specialist | 3,952 | $95,452 | 12.7 yrs |
| Realty | 3,282 | $112,506 | 15.3 yrs |
| Grants Management | 3,042 | $129,704 | 14.5 yrs |
| Purchasing | 2,225 | $59,039 | 13.1 yrs |
| Internal Revenue Officer | 2,183 | n/a | 14.7 yrs |
| Housing Management | 1,724 | $91,096 | 12.5 yrs |
| Commissary Management | 1,174 | n/a | 19.2 yrs |
Nationwide occupation series with similar scale or pay
Two peer sets for Trade Specialist outside the Business and Industry Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (487 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($146,967 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Trade Specialist 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 Business and Industry Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Trade Specialist 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.