About 72,000 federal employees held the GS-15 grade before the 2025 workforce reductions, according to Office of Personnel Management workforce data. That was the most recently published figure at the time of writing, and it represented roughly 3.5% of the approximately 2.03 million federal civilian workers counted in OPM’s pre-reduction baseline.1U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Workforce Size and Composition The count has almost certainly fallen since, because more than 260,000 federal workers left service in 2025, but OPM had not published updated grade-level totals as of mid-2026.
What the 72,000 Figure Covers
GS-15 is the top rung of the General Schedule, the pay framework that covers most white-collar federal civilian employees across 15 grades and 10 steps.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5332 – The General Schedule The 72,000 count reflects employees paid under the standard General Schedule. It does not include workers on agency-specific pay systems that use GS-equivalent grades, such as certain positions at the Department of Defense or intelligence agencies. Anyone comparing this number to a broader “senior federal employee” figure should keep that scope in mind.
For context on where GS-15 sits in the workforce shape: nearly half of all GS employees work in the mid-level grades from GS-9 through GS-12. The senior ranks are thin on purpose, and GS-15 in particular houses program leaders running large divisions and non-supervisory technical experts whose specialties took a career to build.
How the 2025 Reductions Likely Changed the Count
The federal workforce entered a period of significant disruption in 2025. The Office of Management and Budget reported that more than 260,000 workers left federal service through a combination of reductions in force, early retirements, deferred resignations, and a broad hiring freeze. Roughly 25,000 initially terminated employees were later rehired after being deemed essential. These were the largest federal workforce cuts in modern history.
How much of that hit landed on GS-15 specifically is not yet clear from published data. Some reductions targeted probationary employees, who are disproportionately concentrated at lower grades and would leave the senior count largely intact. Other cuts eliminated entire program offices, which would have swept in senior staff along with everyone else. Agencies with major reductions in regulatory and scientific work likely lost experienced GS-15 employees whose specialized experience is not easy to replace.
The practical takeaway: treat the 72,000 figure as a ceiling for the current count, not a live number. OPM’s workforce data tools will eventually reflect the post-reduction totals, but until they do, the precise grade-level breakdown remains unpublished.
The Growth Trend Before the Cuts
The GS-15 population had been rising steadily for years before 2025, and it grew faster than the federal workforce as a whole. Analysts have described this pattern as “grade creep.” The number of employees in the top General Schedule grades increased by roughly 29% over a 15-year span even as the total workforce stayed relatively flat.
Several forces drove that trend. Agencies replaced large numbers of entry-level positions with fewer, higher-skilled roles as technology automated routine tasks. Cybersecurity, data science, and complex regulatory work all demanded senior expertise that agencies priced at the GS-14 and GS-15 level. Budget structures reinforced the pattern, because agencies found it easier to justify senior positions when competing with private-sector salaries for specialized talent. The composition of federal work shifted toward analysis, policy development, and program management, and the grade distribution shifted with it.
Which Agencies Hold the Most GS-15 Positions
The Department of Defense employs more GS-15 civilians than any other agency. That tracks with DOD’s overall size, since more than a third of all federal civilian employees work there.1U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Workforce Size and Composition DOD’s GS-15 roles include weapons system acquisition managers, senior intelligence analysts, and logistics directors supporting military operations worldwide. The scale of the department, with multiple service branches and dozens of defense agencies, requires a large cadre of senior civilian leaders.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security also hold high concentrations of GS-15 positions. At the VA, senior employees manage one of the largest healthcare systems in the country, overseeing networks of hospitals, clinics, and benefits processing centers. At DHS, GS-15 staff coordinate border security policy, cybersecurity programs, and emergency management operations across component agencies including CBP, ICE, and FEMA.
Science-focused agencies punch above their weight in GS-15 concentration even though their overall headcounts are smaller. NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy all employ substantial numbers of senior scientists and engineers at the GS-15 level because their core missions require deep technical expertise. A higher proportion of their workforce clusters at senior grades than at agencies that rely more on administrative staff.
Where an Updated Count Will Appear
OPM publishes federal workforce data, including breakdowns by grade, through its public data portal.1U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Workforce Size and Composition That is where a refreshed post-2025 GS-15 count will show up once the agency releases updated reporting. Until then, 72,000 remains the last authoritative number, understood as a pre-reduction figure rather than a current one.