United States federal civil service

The United States federal civil service is the civilian workforce (i.e., non-elected and non-military, public sector employees) of the United States federal government's departments and agencies. The federal civil service was established in 1871 (5 U.S.C. § 2101). U.S. state and local government entities often have competitive civil service systems that are modeled on the national system, in varying degrees.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, as of December 2011^[update], there were approximately 2.79 million civil servants employed by the U.S. government. This includes employees in the departments and agencies run by any of the three branches government (the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch), such as over 600,000 employees in the U.S. Postal Service.

The majority of civil service positions are classified as competitive service, meaning employees are selected based on merit after a competitive hiring process for positions that are open to all applicants. The Senior Executive Service (SES) is the classification for non-competitive, senior leadership positions filled by career employees or political appointments (e.g., Cabinet members, ambassadors, etc.). Excepted service positions (also known as unclassified service) are non-competitive jobs in certain federal agencies with security and intelligence functions (e.g., the CIA, FBI, State Department, etc.) that are authorized to create their own hiring policies and are not subject to most appointment, pay, and classification laws.

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