Here’s a reply from Yahoo Answers:
Excluding the CIA, NSA, DIA, and other “sensitive” areas, for which the government does not provide stats, there are about 2 Million civilians directly employed by the Federal Government. (not including post office and civilians working abroad)
Add to that, 35,000 that work for the government, but outside the USA (mostly foreign nationals).
Add the post office, which employs about 656,000 civilians.
Also — bear in mind that this is ONLY civilians. The stats dont say what defines a ‘civilian,’ other than it excludes military personnel. Some would define law enforcement, congressmen, and the judiciary as non-civilian.
US Military currently has:
1,473,900 Active duty personnel
1,458,500 Reservist personnel (excluding IRR)
That adds up to
5,623,400 civilian and military employees of the federal government.
There are other factors — like those indirectly in the employ of the federal government, and those omissions previously mentioned.
If I had to guess — i’d say the actual number was closer to 6 -6.5 million.
I wonder if U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management employees are included in those numers, they comprise 40% of employed workers in my area.
Did that include postal workers? Most websites I came across did not include them in federal worker in their totals.