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In response to a number of inquiries, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has again updated its analysis of governmentwide trends in federal civilian employment from the 1996 CBO memorandum, Changes in Federal Civilian Employment. (The last update was issued in April 1998.) Among other things, this analysis updates information on how executive branch employment compares with the statutory caps.

The analysis shows employment totals computed in two different ways. Figures in Table 1 are annual averages of monthly employment counts. The totals in the section on statutory caps on employment, however, measure employment on a full-time-equivalent (FTE) basis, as that is the measure used in establishing the caps. (FTE totals translate employment to full-time equivalents. Under that approach, for example, two half-time workers translate to one full-time-equivalent worker.)  
 

Figures in the text cover most agencies except the Postal Service and those engaged in intelligence gathering. In the tables, where appropriate, total employment is shown with and without the Postal Service. The Postal Service merits separate consideration for a number of reasons: it has its own pay system that features collective bargaining, which is rare at the federal level; it is funded from revenues earned from the sale of postage, and it is not subject to the statutory caps on employment.

Changes in Governmentwide Employment

Between 1997 and 1998, federal civilian employment at the Department of Defense (DoD) continued to drop significantly, falling by 37,900, or 5 percent (see Table 1). By contrast, total employment in nondefense agencies remained almost unchanged, falling by 0.1 percent.

Since 1985, employment has decreased by a net of 350,400, or 16 percent. All of that decrease occurred in DoD, representing a 32 percent drop in employment for that agency. Although many nondefense agencies have significantly cut staff in recent years, total nondefense employment in 1998 had not fallen below 1985's level. The Department of Justice continues to be a notable exception to the recent downward trend in employment among nondefense agencies.

Changes in Executive Branch Employment Compared with Statutory Caps

The Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-226) established caps on total employment in the executive branch for each year from 1994 through 1999. By 1999 that law, as amended, would reduce employment, measured on an FTE basis, to 1.88 million.

Data from the Office of Management and Budget show reductions from the 1993 employment figure totaling 348,600 (see Table 2). The data also show that employment in 1998 totaled 1.79 million, a figure already below the 1.88 million targeted for 1999.
 

This analysis was prepared by R. Mark Musell and Avi Ebenstein of CBO's Special Studies Division.