Getting to know the federal workforce, part 2

As DOGE has worked to trim the federal workforce, there have been deferred retirements, job cuts, reinstatements, and administrative leave in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, the federal hiring freeze issued on President Trump’s first day in office has been extended to July 15.

Who are the employees potentially affected by these changes? Here’s more data on the federal workforce. (As a reminder, we covered the ages of federal employees in late April.)

In 2021, just over 61% of the federal government workforce were white, while 18.2% were Black. This percentage was higher than the share of Americans overall identifying as white (59.3%) and Black (12.6%).

The opposite is true for Hispanic Americans. They represented 18.9% of the US population but were 9.5% of the federal workforce.

Race/ethnicity of federal employees vs. overall population

As of 2021, veterans comprised 30.0% of the federal workforce but 5.6% of the total labor force.

Overall, 16.6% of the federal workforce has a disability, higher than the 12.0% of the total US population that is disabled.

Of all federal government employees, 55.6% are men. That percentage increases to 62.2% of senior level federal government employees.

There are, unsurprisingly, larger percentages of federal workers in the states around Washington, DC. As of March 2025, federal jobs comprised 5.6% of all jobs in Maryland, 4.5% in Virginia, and 3.7% in West Virginia. In Washington, DC, 24.9% of all workers were in government.

However, if you leave the contiguous US, you’ll also find higher proportions of government employees. The federal government employed 5.4% of workers in Hawaii and 4.6% in Alaska.

Most federal jobs are within the executive branch. Last fall, 17 cabinet departments or independent agencies employed more than 10,000 people each; these departments accounted for 96.5% of federal employment.