Dated figures on who America's governments are hiring: open roles from 700+ official federal, state, local and contractor sources, and federal hires and separations from OPM workforce data. One issue a month; the numbers on this page refresh every day.
Across the twelve months to Aug 2026, 52.6% of General Schedule hires came in at GS-7 or below and 14.9% at GS-13 or above. Among live federal postings that state a grade, GS-11 is the single most common, at 9.7%. The listings and the hiring point in opposite directions, which matters most to a first-time applicant, who sees the advertised grade and not the hired one.
Both series are shown as a share of their own total so they sit on one scale. Hires: OPM Federal Workforce Data accessions. Advertised: live federal listings in the Ayla job graph that carry a grade; listings without one are excluded from the denominator.
Since January 2025 the federal government recorded 224,688 hires against 494,711 separations, a net loss of 270,023 people. 139,950 of the separations were deferred resignations. Hiring has exceeded separations in each of the last four reported months.
Sep 2025: 132,949 separations, 106,883 of them deferred resignations.
Source: OPM Federal Workforce Data, seasonally unadjusted, reported with a one-month lag.
The ratio compares a year of actual hires with the postings live today, on any board including this one. It measures how thinly a lane is advertised, not an applicant's odds.
| Occupation | Hires, 12 mo | Live now | Hires per posting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forestry TechnicianSeries 0462 | 2,033 | 0 | 2033× |
| Wildland Fire ManagementSeries 0456 | 5,213 | 15 | 348× |
| Contact RepresentativeSeries 0962 | 3,248 | 13 | 250× |
| Customs and Border ProtectionSeries 1895 | 2,456 | 12 | 205× |
| Border Patrol Enforcement SeriesSeries 1896 | 4,169 | 27 | 154× |
| Criminal InvestigationSeries 1811 | 4,704 | 36 | 131× |
| Park RangerSeries 0025 | 2,024 | 21 | 96× |
| Biological Science TechnicianSeries 0404 | 1,692 | 20 | 85× |
| Hires: OPM Federal Workforce Data, twelve months to Aug 2026. Postings: live federal listings carrying an occupational series. Series with fewer than 1,500 hires are excluded. | |||
| 1General Inspection, Investigation, Enforcement, and Compliance Series | 8,524 |
| 2Nurse | 8,369 |
| 3Miscellaneous Clerk and Assistant | 5,779 |
| 4Wildland Fire Management | 5,213 |
| 5Miscellaneous Administration and Program | 4,775 |
| 6Criminal Investigation | 4,704 |
| 7Medical Support Assistance | 4,637 |
| 8Border Patrol Enforcement Series | 4,169 |
| 9Information Technology Management | 3,865 |
| 10General Attorney | 3,765 |
| Ranked by hires, not by live listings. All series → | |
Postings, not hires. Shares are of 189,305 open roles on Monday, October 12, 2026.
| 1Lockheed Martin | 5,703 |
| 2RTX (Raytheon) | 4,830 |
| 3Northrop Grumman | 3,656 |
| 4Amentum | 2,798 |
| 5SpaceX | 2,729 |
| 6Anduril Industries | 2,504 |
| 7Booz Allen Hamilton | 2,185 |
| 8Leidos | 2,130 |
| Every open contractor role → | |
Roles with a stated work location. Contractor roles count where the job sits, not where the company is headquartered. All 56 jurisdictions →
Administrative jobs represent roughly one-fifth of all open public-sector roles nationwide, making the vertical one of the largest hiring categories.
Texas accounts for nearly 5 percent of the 214,798 open public-sector roles nationwide, outpacing Virginia's 22,374 vacancies.
Administrative jobs represent roughly one-fifth of all open public-sector roles nationwide, making the vertical one of the largest hiring categories.
Texas accounts for nearly 5 percent of the 214,798 open public-sector roles nationwide, outpacing Virginia's 22,374 vacancies.
Human Resources roles represent a small but steady slice of the 207,933 open public-sector positions nationwide, reflecting sustained demand for staffing infrastructure.
California accounts for nearly one-fifth of all open public-sector roles nationwide, far outpacing Virginia in second place with 21,860 positions.
With 14,558 open healthcare roles across federal, state, and local government, the vertical competes for talent amid rising demand for clinical and administrative staff.
Virginia accounts for nearly one-third of all open public-sector positions nationwide, far outpacing second-place California's 15,039 roles.
Virginia accounts for 44,722 open public-sector roles, dwarfing the second-place state and representing nearly one-third of the 144,336 positions available nationwide.
With 17,971 Information Technology open roles across U.S. government, agencies are aggressively hiring to modernize legacy systems and shore up cybersecurity defenses.
Ayla Research drafts each piece with a language model from a fact sheet computed from the live record at publish time; a draft that cites a figure not on the sheet is rejected. An editor reviews every piece before it is published. Figures in a piece are as at its date; the tables on this page keep moving. RSS
One email per issue, sent when the month's figures close. Next: Issue 05, November 2026. It carries the headline figures, the findings and the analysis, with links back to the live tables. Nothing else.
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