(Evan Vucci/AP)President Trump on Monday signed an executive order instituting a hiring freeze on all nonmilitary federal employees. By contrast, the total civilian workforce, excluding federal employees, grew by about 4.9 percent over the same period. But as a share of the total civilian workforce, in percentage terms, the federal workforce is smaller than it's been in nearly 70 years. One factor allowing the federal workforce to remain steady while the population grows is increased outsourcing of public work to private contractors. At the time of this writing, the Trump administration has not released the details of the hiring freeze.

Source: Washington Post January 23, 2017 20:34 UTC