Federal Manager's Daily Report

The Trump administration’s budget proposal projects an increase in federal employment in fiscal 2019, what would be the second year of growth in the administration’s first two years in office.

The budget projects 2.095 million full-time equivalent positions, which would be up by the 10,000 projection for the current fiscal year, which in turn is 23,000 higher than the fiscal 2017 actual. Actual 2018 levels “are likely to be different, to account for final appropriations, administrative decisions within agencies, and other factors,” it adds.

Agencies with notable projections in growth include DHS, up 13,000 and VA, up 8,000; however, both have had trouble filling the positions they already have, with the former especially short on border patrol and immigration enforcement officers and the latter understaffed in many medical fields. Commerce is expected to grow by about 9,100 in preparation for the 2020 Census, although many of those positions will be temporary and/or part-time. Projected significant losses are at Agriculture, down 7,200 and the EPA, down 3,800.

The budget also contains information similar to that which the Obama administration started including several years ago to justify federal pay raises, even though the new budget seeks a pay freeze for 2019. It notes that 57 percent of federal employees are in the nine highest paid occupations ranked by private sector salaries compared with 36.2 percent of private sector workers, and just 4.7 percent of federal employees are in the three lowest-paid occupational groupings, compared with 12.2 percent in the private sector.

Related data show significant differences in educational level, also tied to higher salaries. Just under 30 percent of federal employees have masters or higher degrees, up from 15 percent in 1992; during that period, the private sector overall figure rose from 6 to 10 percent. In contrast, only about 5 percent of federal employees have a high school education or less–down from 30 percent in that time–while the private sector average has fallen from 50 to about 38 percent.