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OPM FedScope March 2025 Legal and Kindred Group

Veterans Claims Examining

Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Veterans Claims Examining occupation series (code 996), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (March 2025).

The verdict

Veterans Claims Examining is a mid-sized federal occupation: 20,446 employees (0.9% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Legal and Kindred Group family. At an average salary of $86,773 it pays below the federal average of $109,869, and headcount declined 2.9% from the prior period.

Employees
20,446
Share of workforce
0.9%
Avg salary
$86,773
Avg tenure
10.2 yrs

What the Numbers Say About Veterans Claims Examining

Federal agencies employ 20,446 people in the Veterans Claims Examining occupation (OPM code 996), accounting for 0.9% of the total federal civilian workforce of 2,289,472 for the March 2025 reporting window. Headcount in this occupation moved down by -2.9% 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.

Veterans Claims Examining pays $86,773 per year on average, 21.0% below the $109,869 federal civilian average, after moving up 4.3% 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 10.2 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 Veterans Claims Examining alongside 17 related occupations. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Veterans Claims Examining 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.

Veterans Claims Examining makes up 15.3% of the 133,580 employees across the Legal and Kindred Group family, ranking #3 of 18 occupations in that family by headcount. Its average salary ranks in the bottom half (39th percentile) of pay among Legal and Kindred Group occupations.

Employees

20,446

-2.9% from prior period

Average Salary

$86,773

+4.3%

Avg Length of Service

10.2 yrs

Occupation Family

Legal and Kindred Group

Salary Context

How Veterans Claims Examining pay compares to the federal average of $109,869

Occupation Average

$86,773

Federal Average

$109,869

vs. Federal Avg

-21.0%

Where Veterans Claims Examining ranks on federal pay

Its average salary of $86,773 is higher than 51% of federal occupation series (324 of 634). The highlighted bar marks where Veterans Claims Examining sits in the federal pay distribution.

$16,074132$63,787308$111,499167$159,21223$206,9242$254,6372
Distribution of average salary across all 634 federal occupation series (OPM FedScope) - Veterans Claims Examining is in the highlighted range.

Average-salary distribution across all 634 federal occupation series; Veterans Claims Examining ranks higher than 51%.

Source: OPM FedScope Employment Cubes As of March 2025

10 other occupations in the same family

Occupation Employees Avg Salary
General Attorney 43,533 $170,777
Contact Representative 36,864 $60,188
General Legal and Kindred Administration 9,754 $79,549
Paralegal Specialist 6,251 $98,575
Legal Assistance 4,124 $64,987
Hearings and Appeals 3,910 $124,130
Passport and Visa Examining 2,086 $88,692
Legal Instruments Examining 1,570 $67,013
Administrative Law Judge 1,384 $205,877
Claims Assistance and Examining 1,158 $65,453

Frequently Asked Questions

How many federal employees work as Veterans Claims Examining?
There are 20,446 federal employees in the Veterans Claims Examining occupation as of March 2025. This represents 0.9% of the total federal civilian workforce.
What is the average salary for Veterans Claims Examining in the federal government?
The average salary for Veterans Claims Examining in the federal government is $86,773 per year, which is 21.0% below the overall federal average of $109,869.
What occupation family does Veterans Claims Examining belong to?
Occupation code 996, Veterans Claims Examining, sits within the 18-occupation Legal and Kindred Group family (code 9).
What is the average length of service for Veterans Claims Examining?
Veterans Claims Examining employees stay an average of 10.2 years, compared with the 11.8-year federal-wide average.
Is the Veterans Claims Examining workforce growing or shrinking?
A decline of 2.9% from the prior period put the Veterans Claims Examining occupation at 20,446 employees, down roughly 609 positions.
How does Veterans Claims Examining pay compare to private sector salaries?
Veterans Claims Examining pays $86,773 on average in the federal government, 21.0% below the $109,869 federal-wide average. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program tracks the private-sector equivalent for comparison.

Data Source: U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope Employment Cubes, March 2025. Federal civilian non-seasonal full-time and part-time employees. Data does not include military personnel, postal workers, or intelligence agency staff. Last updated: 2026-03-10.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainGovJobs

PlainGovJobs is rendered directly from OPM FedScope federal-workforce data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on OPM FedScope occupation-level employment records. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.