Writing and Editing
Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Writing and Editing occupation series (code 1082), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (June 2026).
The verdict
With 760 employees (0.0% of the federal civilian workforce), Writing and Editing ranks as a smaller, specialized federal occupation within the Information and Arts Group family, and headcount declined from the prior period. Its average salary of $138,055 pays above the federal average.
- Headcount change
- -5.8%
- Pay change
- -0.3%
- Avg tenure
- 15.2 yrs
- Rank in family
- #6 of 19
What the Numbers Say About Writing and Editing
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, a modest but trackable signal for anyone considering this specialized federal career path. 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.
Writing and Editing sits inside the Information and Arts Group family (code 10), which contains 19 related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Writing and Editing 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 Writing and Editing accounts for 5.2% of them. Its average salary ranks in the top half (94th percentile) of pay among Information and Arts Group occupations.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How Writing and Editing pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$138,055
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+17.7%
Where Writing and Editing ranks on rich federal pay
Writing and Editing earns more on average than 81% of federal occupation series (439 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Writing and Editing sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Writing and Editing.
Related Occupations in Information and Arts Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Affairs | 5,552 | $129,060 | 14.3 yrs |
| 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 |
| 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 occupation series with similar scale or pay
Two peer sets for Writing and Editing outside the Information and Arts Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (760 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($138,055 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Writing and Editing 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 Writing and Editing 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.