POGO – Contractors and the True Size of Government, October 5, 2017
“Four out of every ten people who work for the U.S. government are private contractors. That’s according to a new report by New York University professor Paul Light. Light estimates the true size of the federal government (as of 2015) is 9.1 million government employees, active-duty military personnel, Postal Service workers, and contract and grant employees. More than 40 percent of the workforce—about 3.7 million people—are contract workers. Light’s analysis shows that contractors have long been the single largest segment of Uncle Sam’s “blended workforce,” accounting for between 30 and 42 percent of that workforce since the 1980s…”

See also Federal Workforce: Recent Trends in Federal Civilian Employment and Compensation, GAO-14-215: Published: Jan 29, 2014. Publicly Released: Jan 29, 2014. “…From 2004 to 2012, the federal non-postal civilian workforce grew by 258,882 employees, from 1.88 million to 2.13 million (14 percent). Permanent career employees accounted for most of the growth, increasing by 256,718 employees, from 1.7 million in 2004 to 1.96 million in 2012 (15 percent). Three agencies–the Departments of Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS), and Veterans Affairs (VA)–accounted for about 94 percent of this increase…”