PlainGovJobs

Federal Workforce Rankings

States and agencies ranked by workforce size, pay, and tenure. All data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope.

Where federal headcount concentrates

Agency size bands from the live OPM FWD stock: a handful of ≥50k employers hold most civilian headcount while dozens of small agencies share a thin residual. Concentration is not a quality ranking.

  • ≥50k employees · 88.9% · 1,736,207 · 12 agencies
  • 10k–50k · 7.8% · 152,941 · 7 agencies
  • 1k–10k · 2.6% · 50,106 · 17 agencies
  • <1k · 0.7% · 14,046 · 90 agencies

Source: OPM Federal Workforce Data agency stock counts aggregated in PlainGovJobs (June 2026).

Most Federal Employees by State

States with the largest federal civilian workforce.

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  1. 1 District of Columbia 96,552
  2. 2 California 78,484
  3. 3 Maryland 75,194
  4. 4 Texas 73,050
  5. 5 Florida 55,342

Highest Average Federal Salary by State

States where federal employees earn the most on average.

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  1. 1 District of Columbia $154,024
  2. 2 Maryland $146,475
  3. 3 Virginia $134,612
  4. 4 New Jersey $126,642
  5. 5 California $124,322

Lowest Average Federal Salary by State

States where federal employees earn the least on average.

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  1. 1 Utah $87,896
  2. 2 Wyoming $88,728
  3. 3 Montana $90,083
  4. 4 South Dakota $92,120
  5. 5 Idaho $92,160

Largest Federal Agencies

The biggest federal agencies by total employee count.

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  1. 1 Department of Veterans Affairs 445,351
  2. 2 Department of Homeland Security 225,568
  3. 3 Department of the Navy 201,061
  4. 4 Department of the Army 187,785
  5. 5 Department of the Air Force 151,285

Highest Paying Federal Agencies

Federal agencies with the highest average salaries.

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  1. 1 National Credit Union Administration $315,000
  2. 2 Farm Credit Administration $314,528
  3. 3 Commodity Futures Trading Commission $242,522
  4. 4 Securities and Exchange Commission $240,371
  5. 5 Federal Housing Finance Agency $210,207

Longest Average Tenure by State

States where federal employees stay the longest.

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  1. 1 Maryland 15.8 yrs
  2. 2 District of Columbia 15.6 yrs
  3. 3 Virginia 14.1 yrs
  4. 4 New Jersey 14.0 yrs
  5. 5 New Mexico 13.4 yrs

Download the 51-jurisdiction duty-station extract: federal-workforce-by-state.csv (same extract as /statistics).

PlainGovJobs is rendered directly from OPM FedScope Employment Cubes and Federal Workforce Data (FWD), no number is typed in by an editor. Each ranking preview is the top of a live FedScope sort (headcount, average salary, or tenure) - not a quality or hiring-ease score. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Data current as of June 2026. 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.