Federal govt employement is 3 million or 23 million ????

I did head count benchmarking of 5 large petrochemical sites in the early 90's, to support a staffing plan for a new site. Every site reported its headcount on a different basis driven by needs to show site in most favorable light. hourly, salaried, temporary, loan outs were treated differently. But one thing universal was the contractor head count vagueness. You just never got an answer.

This evening I read through several US govt reports that showed about 3 3 million employed by the federal govt. But they say upfront that doesn't include military, Postal service and a few smaller groups like the CIA.

Of three nongovt reports read, one claims that there are 2 fed contractors for every direct employee. Report two claims that when contractors are included the number is 21 million. Report 3 claims that when contractors,,,,,and grant managers, and consultants are included the number is 24 million folks working for the federal government.

there is lots of opportunity .

The total head count of state and local employees reported was ridiculous low. And I do get a lot more support from state and local versus Feds. DOGE will need more than a computer or 5 bullet statement to sort the data