The federal government is the largest single employer in the United States. Some 3 million civilian workers are employed in a full range of occupational and professional fields plus some that are unique to the federal government such as postal worker, Foreign Service officer, and internal revenue agent.
The federal government employs general clerical workers and postal clerks and mail carriers. Many civilians are employed in engineering and related fields, most in the U.S. Department of Defense. Many accounting workers, including professional accountants, are employed throughout the federal government, with the largest concentrations in the Department of Defense, the Treasury Department, and the General Accounting Office.
Federal civilian employees also work in hospitals or other health care facilities and public health activities. Most are employed by the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense, the Department of Education, or the Department of Health and Human Services.
In the departments of the Treasury, Justice, and Agriculture, the federal government employs workers in the field of law as well as in investigation and inspection.
Other federal employees work in the fields of social science, biological and agricultural science, physical science, and mathematics.
The federal government also employs many blue-collar workers, most in the Department of Defense. Skilled craft workers in all fields and mobile equipment operators and mechanics make up a large segment of these jobs.
Places of employment and working conditions
Federal employees work throughout the country, in Washington, D.C., in U.S. territories, and foreign countries.
Most federal employees work a 40-hour, five-day week; for extra hours worked, they receive overtime pay or compensatory time off.
Working conditions vary depending on the job.
Qualifications, education, and training
The federal government usually has the same educational and experience requirements as private employers. Jobs requiring licensing, however, may have different requirements at the federal level. Check this section under each individual job description for detailed information.
Almost all federal jobs are under a merit system of one kind or another. The U.S. Civil Service Commission covers 60 percent of all federal jobs. Most of those not governed by the Civil Service requirements are covered by separate merit systems within a specific agency such as the Foreign Service of the State Department or the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
An applicant for a federal job must fulfill the minimum age, training, and experience requirements for a particular job and usually must take the appropriate competitive examination. Applicants are notified as to their eligibility or ineligibility and rating, and eligible applicants are listed according to their test scores. Job openings are filled as they occur from the three top positions on a list. Persons not chosen for immediate job openings remain on the list for a period of time and may be selected for subsequent job openings.
Potential and advancement
The federal government employs about three million people. On the whole, federal employment will rise very little, but the job outlook varies depending on the field.
Advancement opportunities for each individual job follow the same patterns as in the private sector. The top positions in many agencies, however, are filled by presidential or congressional appointments.
Income
About one-quarter of all federal civilian workers are paid according to the coordinated Federal Wage System. Under this system, wage rates for craft, service, and manual workers vary by locality since their hourly wage rates are based on prevailing rates paid by local private employers.
The Postal Service Schedule actually consists of several rate schedules that cover different types and levels of postal workers such as production, supervisory, technical or clerical workers, rural carriers, and postal executives. Pay schedules, except for executives, include periodic "step" increases, and most postal workers receive cost-of-living adjustments.
Over half of all federal workers are paid under the General Pay Schedule, where jobs are graded according to difficulty of duties, knowledge, education, skills, and experience required and level of responsibility. Each of the 18 grades has an entrance and maximum pay range, and employees receive within-grade pay increases for acceptable work at stipulated time periods. Within-grade increases may also be given in recognition of superior work.
Some examples of grade levels and pay ranges
Graduates of two-year colleges and technical schools with no related work experience would probably begin at GS-4 level with a starting salary of $13,200 a year.
Professional and administrative employees enter at GS-5 or GS-7, depending on their academic record. The GS-5 pay level starts at $15,300 a year; the GS-7 level starts at $19,000.
Those with a master's degree or equivalent education or experience usually enter at the GS-11 level, where pay starts at $31,000 a year.
Federal employees receive 13 days of annual leave (vacation) during each year of their first three years of employment, 20 days per year until 15 years of employment, and 26 days per year after that. Other benefits include nine paid holidays, a contributory retirement system, optional participation in group life and health insurance programs which are partly paid by the government, and government-provided training and educational programs.
Additional sources of information
State employment service offices have information on some federal job openings.
The U.S. Civil Service Commission has 62 area offices and over 100 Federal Job Information Centers in various cities throughout the country. These offices announce and conduct examinations for federal jobs; they can be located under the "U.S. Government" listing in most telephone books. Job openings and local test and interview schedules are sometimes also listed in the help-wanted sections of local newspapers.
Applicants can also obtain information from the individual agency in which they are interested.
