Federal Jobs Loyalty Test Statistics 2026 | Applicants, Jobs, Agencies & Facts

Nearly 48,000 federal job postings on USAJobs.gov included a contested political essay question by June 2026, up from about 5,800 when federal unions first sued to block it in November 2025. The question asks applicants how they would help advance the President’s executive orders and policy priorities.

Federal Jobs Loyalty Test – Introduction

The federal jobs loyalty test has become one of the most contested elements of federal hiring in 2026, spreading from a small pilot group of job postings to tens of thousands within a single year. Under the Office of Personnel Management’s Merit Hiring Plan, first released in May 2025, agencies began attaching new essay questions to job postings at the GS-5 level and above, asking applicants to describe how they would help advance the President’s executive orders and identify which policy priorities matter most to them personally. Critics, including federal employee unions and members of Congress, have labeled the practice a political loyalty screen incompatible with the merit-based civil service system.

The dispute has moved well beyond political rhetoric into active federal litigation. Three major federal employee unions sued the Office of Personnel Management in November 2025, and court filings throughout 2026 have revealed a rapidly expanding footprint for the essay question, along with disputes over whether OPM’s claim that the question is “optional” actually holds up in practice. Understanding exactly how many jobs are affected, which agencies rely on the question most heavily, and where the legal fight currently stands offers a clear picture of one of the year’s most closely watched federal workforce controversies.

The controversy also arrives at a moment of broader upheaval across the federal workforce. Mass reductions in force, deferred resignation programs, and two separate government shutdowns have already reshaped federal employment throughout 2025 and 2026, leaving a smaller, more closely scrutinized civil service navigating a hiring process now layered with an additional political screening step. For job seekers weighing whether to apply, and for the agencies trying to fill critical vacancies, the loyalty question has become a defining feature of what federal employment looks like in 2026.

Interesting Facts

Source: Court filings in AFGE et al. v. OPM, US District Court for the District of Massachusetts; OPM FedScope Employment Cubes

These interesting facts about the federal jobs loyalty test show a policy that has expanded far faster than its critics initially anticipated. The jump from roughly 5,800 postings when unions first filed suit to nearly 48,000 postings just seven months later represents more than an eightfold increase, with a single two-month stretch in March and April 2026 alone adding 16,000 new postings, effectively doubling the total in that period.

The concentration among specific job types is just as notable. With 60% of attorney positions and roughly half of IT positions now including the essay question, the practice touches some of the federal government’s most sought-after professional roles at a moment when the overall federal workforce has already shrunk to 1,953,300 employees, well below its recent peak.

The speed of the policy’s rollout also stands out against the backdrop of ordinary federal rulemaking, which typically moves through lengthy notice-and-comment processes before taking effect. Here, agencies began attaching the essay question to individual job postings on a rolling basis without a formal regulatory process, a structure that plaintiffs argue allowed the practice to scale up far faster than affected employees or the public could meaningfully respond to or challenge through normal channels.

Federal Jobs Loyalty Test Growth in Postings 2026

Source: Court filings in AFGE et al. v. OPM, Federal News Network, Government Executive

The growth trajectory of the federal jobs loyalty test tells its own story about how quickly the policy scaled up during 2026. What began as a relatively contained set of 5,800 postings in November 2025 had already grown to roughly 8,100 by the time additional court declarations were filed weeks later. By late April 2026, that figure had climbed to 33,000, with union attorneys specifically noting that 16,000 new postings had appeared in just the preceding two months, a pace they described as effectively doubling the total.

By June 2026, an independent online tool tracking USAJobs.gov listings put the figure at nearly 48,000 postings, representing roughly a quarter of all federal job postings that included any kind of application questionnaire since the Merit Hiring Plan’s original rollout. That share suggests the essay question, while far from universal, has become a standard feature across a meaningful portion of federal hiring rather than a narrow pilot program confined to a handful of agencies.

Each data point in this growth curve came directly from court filings rather than voluntary agency disclosures, since OPM itself has not published a running public count of how many postings include the question. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have instead relied on periodic manual reviews and, later, an automated scraping tool monitoring USAJobs.gov listings in real time, a method that has allowed the case record to keep pace with the policy’s rapid expansion even as the underlying legal dispute over its legality remains unresolved.

Which Federal Agencies Use the Loyalty Question in 2026

Source: Court filings in AFGE et al. v. OPM, plaintiff-submitted data analysis

Adoption of the loyalty question varies dramatically by agency, with some departments applying it to nearly every relevant posting while others use it far more selectively. The Department of Labor stands out with nearly 100% of its postings including the essay question, the highest adoption rate of any major federal agency documented in court filings. The Department of Justice and Department of Energy each show adoption rates near 75%, meaning three out of every four postings at those agencies ask candidates to describe how they would help advance the President’s policy priorities before they can even be considered for an interview.

Number of Federal Employees by Year Statistics in US show that this expansion in the loyalty question has occurred during a period when the overall federal workforce has already contracted sharply, down 327,000 positions, or 10.9%, from its October 2024 peak. That combination, a shrinking workforce paired with an expanding political screening requirement on the jobs that remain open, has drawn particular concern from union representatives who argue it further narrows an already smaller pool of federal job opportunities.

The uneven adoption across agencies also raises questions about how individual departments are interpreting OPM’s guidance. Since the Merit Hiring Plan set governmentwide expectations rather than a strict mandate applied uniformly to every posting, agency-level human resources offices appear to retain some discretion over exactly when and how frequently to attach the essay question, which may explain why departments like Labor apply it almost universally while others use it more sparingly across comparable position types.

Which Federal Job Types Are Most Affected in 2026

Source: Court filings in AFGE et al. v. OPM, plaintiff-submitted data analysis

Professional and specialized roles carry a disproportionate share of postings featuring the loyalty question. Attorney positions lead all categories at roughly 60%, followed by information technology roles at close to 50%, and both human resources and general engineering positions at around 45%. Plaintiffs in the union lawsuit specifically cited real-world examples, including an assistant US attorney position at the Justice Department, a safety and occupational health specialist role at OSHA, and a clinical psychologist position at the Defense Health Agency, all of which reportedly could not be submitted without answering the essay prompt.

The concentration among legal, technical, and administrative roles reflects how broadly the GS-5-and-above threshold set in the Merit Hiring Plan sweeps across the federal government’s professional workforce. Unlike entry-level or purely clerical positions, these mid-to-senior-level roles represent exactly the kind of specialized talent federal agencies have historically struggled to recruit and retain, raising questions among critics about whether the added political screening step could further complicate hiring in fields already facing competition from the private sector.

Several declarants in the union lawsuit described directly abandoning applications rather than answering the essay prompt. One Department of Veterans Affairs employee with IT support, records management, and software development experience said they had applied to ten federal jobs but grew reluctant to answer the loyalty question, explaining they did not want to discuss politics at work and believed the question raised legal concerns. That same employee reported actively searching for other federal roles, partly seeking positions considered less likely to face future workforce reductions.

The Legal Challenge to the Loyalty Question in 2026

Source: Court filings, US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Office of Special Counsel

Three major federal employee unions, the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the National Association of Government Employees, filed suit against OPM in November 2025, seeking a court order to stop agencies from using the loyalty question in job postings while the case proceeds. Attorney Ori Lev of Protect Democracy, representing the plaintiffs, submitted a personal declaration describing his own attempts to apply for several federal positions, finding in each case that the essay field was marked “required” and would not allow submission when left blank, directly contradicting OPM’s public position that the question is optional.

DHS Shutdown Statistics in US and the broader turbulence across federal agencies this year provide useful context for the environment in which this litigation has unfolded, since federal employees have simultaneously navigated shutdown-related pay disruptions, workforce reductions, and now a contested hiring screen, all within the same twelve-month period. As of mid-2026, a federal judge in the District of Massachusetts had held a hearing on the unions’ request to block the question but had not yet issued a ruling, leaving the essay requirement in place across tens of thousands of active job postings while the case remains pending.

Union attorneys have argued the delay itself carries real consequences, since every month without a ruling allows the number of affected postings to keep climbing, from roughly 5,800 at the time of filing to nearly ten times that figure less than a year later. In court filings, the unions specifically urged the judge to issue a decision without further delay, noting that thousands of new applicants each month are either compelled to answer a political question as a condition of employment or discouraged from applying altogether, a dynamic they argue causes ongoing harm that will not be undone even if the court eventually rules in their favor.

The Office of Special Counsel’s earlier, narrower determination adds another layer to the dispute. Responding to a complaint filed in the summer of 2025, the office found that agencies should refrain from using the essay questions specifically when filling Senior Executive Service positions, the government’s most senior management tier. That finding stopped well short of the blanket prohibition unions are now seeking through the federal lawsuit, leaving the much larger population of GS-5-and-above professional and technical postings still subject to the question while the broader litigation remains unresolved.

The Broader Federal Hiring Context in 2026

Source: OPM FedScope Employment Cubes, OPM Merit Hiring Plan

The Merit Hiring Plan that introduced the loyalty question also set a broader governmentwide goal of reducing average federal hiring time to under 80 days, part of a wider effort to overhaul what officials have long described as a slow and cumbersome federal recruitment process. Whether the added essay requirement helps or hinders that speed goal remains contested, since union representatives argue the question adds friction and discourages qualified candidates from completing applications at all, citing declarations from current federal employees who said they abandoned job searches specifically because they were unwilling to answer a political question as a condition of applying.

Partial US Government Shutdown Statistics covering this year’s repeated funding lapses add further context to the pressures facing the federal workforce during the same period the loyalty question expanded. With federal employment already down 327,000 positions from its October 2024 peak and average federal salaries sitting at $117,339, the combination of a shrinking workforce, disrupted pay during shutdowns, and a contested new hiring screen has created what union officials describe as a uniquely difficult year for federal recruitment and retention, even as the administration maintains the essay question serves a legitimate purpose in aligning new hires with agency priorities.

Supporters of the Merit Hiring Plan have framed the broader overhaul, including the essay questions, as a necessary corrective to a federal hiring system long criticized for being slow, opaque, and disconnected from agency mission priorities. Whether that framing survives ongoing litigation, or whether the courts ultimately side with unions arguing the question amounts to unconstitutional political screening, will likely shape not just this single policy but the broader template other future administrations might use when redesigning how the federal government evaluates job applicants going forward.

Federal Jobs Loyalty Test – FAQ

What is the federal jobs loyalty test?

It refers to essay questions added to federal job postings at GS-5 and above under OPM’s Merit Hiring Plan, asking applicants how they would help advance the President’s executive orders and policy priorities.

How many federal job postings currently include the loyalty question?

Nearly 48,000 postings included the question as of June 2026, up from about 5,800 when unions first sued in November 2025.

Is the loyalty question actually optional?

OPM states the question is optional, but court filings from plaintiffs’ attorneys show that in practice, many applications cannot be submitted without answering the essay field.

Which federal agency uses the loyalty question most often?

The Department of Labor applies it to nearly 100% of its job postings, the highest rate of any major federal agency documented in court filings.

Which job types are most likely to include the loyalty question?

Attorney positions lead at roughly 60%, followed by IT roles at 50%, and both HR and general engineering positions at around 45%.

Who is suing to block the loyalty question?

Three federal employee unions, the American Federation of Government Employees, AFSCME, and the National Association of Government Employees, sued OPM in November 2025.

Has a court ruled on the loyalty question lawsuit?

As of mid-2026, a federal judge had held a hearing on the unions’ request to block the question but had not yet issued a ruling.

How large is the federal workforce as the loyalty question has expanded?

The federal civilian workforce stood at 1,953,300 employees as of June 2026, down 327,000 positions, or 10.9%, from its October 2024 peak.

What did the Office of Special Counsel say about the essay questions?

The Office of Special Counsel determined that agencies should refrain from using these essay questions when filling Senior Executive Service positions.

What is OPM’s stated goal for federal hiring speed?

OPM’s Merit Hiring Plan sets a governmentwide target of reducing average federal hiring time to under 80 days.

What specific question does the essay ask applicants?

The essay asks applicants to describe how they would help advance the President’s executive orders and policy priorities, including identifying one or two that are significant to them personally.

Did any federal employees report abandoning job applications because of the question?

Yes. Multiple declarants in the union lawsuit, including federal employees with IT, records management, and software development backgrounds, said they grew reluctant to apply for federal jobs specifically because of the essay requirement.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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