Wisconsin
Wisconsin has thousands of federal employees. Which agencies do they work for?
Watchdog groups and lawmakers say Musk’s DOGE takeover of the Treasury department could be the largest data breach in US history
Trump administration aides locked officials out of government computers and offered buyouts to federal employees.
Thousands of federal employees working in Wisconsin could be affected by two recent actions from the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 mandating all federal employees return to in-person work, then the administration began offering buyouts a week later for those who don’t wish to return to the office.
Under the offer, eligible employees would have eight months of pay and benefits through September if they resigned by Thursday, Feb. 6.
Since then, 20,000 employees — or about 1% of the total federal workforce — had accepted the offer as of Tuesday, Feb. 4, according to USA TODAY.
However, the executive order is facing a legal challenge, since the American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. A federal judge paused the buyout offer ahead of employees’ deadline and set a hearing for Monday, Feb. 10.
Here’s what to know about the federal workforce in Wisconsin:
How many federal employees are in Wisconsin?
There are 18,022 federal civilian employees in Wisconsin as of March 2024, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FedScope online data tool.
FedScope does exclude a number of departments and agencies, including the majority of the legislative and judicial branches and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), per the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The USPS employs 10,700 people in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area, which includes Wisconsin, according to a May 2023 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
What cabinet-level agencies do Wisconsin federal employees work for?
Most federal employees in Wisconsin work for cabinet-level agencies as of March 2024, FedScope data shows. March 2024 was the most recent data available. Here’s a deeper look at employees by agency:
- Department of the Air Force: 374
- Department of Agriculture: 1,743
- Department of the Army: 1,803
- Department of Commerce: 307
- Department of Defense: 121
- Department of Justice: 159
- Department of Labor: 107
- Department of Energy: 15
- Department of Education: N/A
- Department of Health and Human Services: 179
- Department of Homeland Security: 130
- Department of Housing and Urban Development: 40
- Department of the Interior: 742
- Department of the Navy: 121
- Department of State: N/A
- Department of Transportation: 245
- Department of the Treasury: 157
- Department of Veteran Affairs: 10,930
What large independent agencies do Wisconsin federal employees work for?
In total, 815 federal employees in Wisconsin work for larger independent agencies as of March 2024, FedScope data shows. Here’s a deeper look at employees by agency:
- U.S. Agency for International Development: N/A
- National Credit Union Administration: N/A
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: 22
- Environmental Protection Agency: 18
- Federal Communications Commission: N/A
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: 85
- Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia: N/A
- Federal Reserve System: N/A
- Federal Trade Commission: N/A
- General Services Administration: 56
- U.S. Agency for Global Media: N/A
- Government Printing Office: N/A
- National Science Foundation: N/A
- National Labor Relations Board: 16
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration: N/A
- National Archives and Records Administration: N/A
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission: N/A
- Office of Personnel Management: N/A
- Small Business Administration: 26
- Securities and Exchange Commission: N/A
- Smithsonian Institution: N/A
- Social Security Administration: 550
What medium and smaller independent agencies do Wisconsin federal employees work for?
In total, 25 federal employees in Wisconsin work for medium independent agencies as of March 2024, according to FedScope. Though, state totals for federal employees at specific agencies of this size are not available.
Similarly, no state data is available for federal employees at smaller agencies.
USA TODAY reporters Joey Garrison and Maureen Groppe contributed to this report.