Federal Government Payrolls

## What this measures

The number of people on payrolls in one U.S. industry sector: civilian jobs in federal agencies and the U.S. Postal Service; uniformed military personnel are not included. It counts jobs, not people, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly survey of about 120,000 businesses and government agencies. The series is seasonally adjusted and expressed in thousands of jobs.

## Why it matters

It shows the size of the federal civilian workforce, which moves on hiring freezes, buyouts and reductions in force rather than on the economy. Comparing sectors shows where hiring is concentrated and where it is shrinking, which the headline payroll number hides.

## How to read it

A rising line means the sector is adding jobs; a falling line means it is cutting them. Read the change over several months, or against a fixed starting point, rather than one month: monthly changes are small next to the level, and the first estimate for each month is revised in each of the next two reports and again at the annual benchmark.

## What it does not say

It does not count the self-employed, farm workers or, for government, the uniformed military. It does not show hours, pay or whether jobs are full-time or part-time, and a person holding two jobs is counted twice.

## Source

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics, series CES9091000001 ("All Employees"), published with the monthly Employment Situation report. Palanor pulls it from the FRED API (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) nightly. BLS data are in the public domain.