Employment Trends - Federal Employment: Defense Yields To The Courier

In the last eight years (1992-2000), federal employment declined by more than 310,000. More than 90% of this decline was accounted for by the shrinkage of civilian employment in the Department of Defense, down 284,000. Uniformed military forces on active duty also shrank some 350,000 in this period — but they are not included in the chart above. We didn't know that something was coming on September 11, 2001.

The two largest components of federal employment are the civilians in the Department of Defense and the employees of the U.S. Postal Service. Together these two activities accounted for more than 50% of federal jobs, 56.8% in 1992 and 55.5% in 2000.

The rate of employment in the Postal Service grew annually by 1.5%, reflecting an expanding volume of mail. Despite the rise in communications by e-mail, the avalanche of letters handled by the Postal Service did not show signs of diminishing until after 9/11. During this time the Post Office also participated in the Internet boom, when it began to sell its goods and services online. Total federal employment declined annually by the same percentage. Defense shrank at the rate of 4.3% a year

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Public Employment and Payroll. Online. Available: http://www.census.gov/govs/www/apes.html. December 21, 2001. Values for 1996 are extrapolated.