Federal Workforce: Recent Trends in Federal Civilian Employment and Compensation

Abstract

Skilled federal workers are critical to the successful operation of government. At the same time, personnel costs for current and former federal civilian employees represented about 26 percent of total discretionary spending in 2012; these personnel costs are outlays from budget authority authorized by appropriations acts. Given the need to control agencies' personnel costs while also maintaining agencies' high performance, a thorough understanding of employment and compensation trends is a critical component of strategic workforce planning. GAO was asked to provide data on federal employment and compensation trends. This report examines (1) employment trends of federal civilian personnel from 2004 to 2012 and some factors that affect these trends, and (2) the extent to which federal civilian employee compensation has changed (as a percentage of total discretionary spending) and some reasons for this change.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 29, 2014
Accession Number
AD1156101

Entities

People

  • Robert Goldenkoff

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accountability
  • Acquisition
  • Border Security
  • Budgets
  • Business Administration
  • Civilian Personnel
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Discretionary Spending
  • Employment
  • Federal Budgets
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • Money
  • National Governments
  • Personnel Management
  • President (United States)
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Naval Personnel Management
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting