To collect taxes you need tax collectors. To inspect meat you need meat inspectors. To direct air traffic, you need air traffic controllers. The iron rule of all bureaucracies is that when workers are available, work will be done. When they are not available, it will not.

For the federal government, this rule means that to understand what any agency is doing in the nation as a whole or in any given section of the country information about the number and kind of available employees is vital.

Detailed information about most of the civilian employees working for the federal government is now accessible on TRAC's Federal Staffing layer. Over 35 years worth of data -- more than 75 million records -- all at your fingertips. How many employees are available today compared with five years ago? How do the staffing and salary patterns in your area compare with neighboring areas or the nation as a whole? Is your district, county or city being deprived of necessary government services? Or compared to other similar areas, is it loaded down with federal workers?

TRAC now must regretfully report, however, that in the years since 2003 the federal government – breaking an unbroken tradition going back to 1816 holding that the names, positions, duty stations, and salaries of all federal employees were public records – began a massive withholding. Gone, allegedly for privacy reasons, are the names of a growing number of federal workers along with the state, county, and city where they worked. The government now goes much further: claiming that even without names or any indirect means of identification, totally anonymous data about the state or county where federal employees work can be withheld from the public in order to protect the personal privacy of individuals on the federal payroll.

The menus for historical data (1975-2003) still provide statistics by geography – state, federal district, and county. Statistics by geography are unavailable in current menus. The listing and detail pages continue to provide geography on an individual where it is still being released, and will show redaction tags where it is now withheld. Withholding covers some civilian workers in most federal agencies ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Civilian defense workers and law enforcement agencies have the most widespread withholding. The government's new withholding also covers many other common categories of workers – from federal prosecutors to TSA screeners at airports, national park service investigators to immigration officers.

Examine statistical overviews or drill down to information about individual employees: Who are they? Where do they work? What is their occupation? What are they paid?

---

Copyright 2002, 2013 TRAC Reports, Inc.