The number of Federal government employees has been slowly declining since 1959 (excluding military and Postal Service, as a percentage of the total population). The VA is the federal government’s largest employer, with over 450,000 employees.

=== links ===

The evolution of government employment, December 30, 2024
"Of course, over such a long period, the population of the United States would have increased considerably. So it probably makes more sense to look at the public workforce as a percentage of the population. This is what the second graph below does. Now we can see that federal public employment has been slowly declining since 1959, state employment stopped growing in the 1990s, and local employment stopped as well in the 2000s."
fredblog.stlouisfed.org - The evolution of government employment

An up-to-date government employment chart can be seen at: St. Louis Fed (FRED): All Employees, Federal, Except U.S. Postal Service/Population | FRED

Veterans Affairs deems more than 130 occupations ineligible for Trump’s deferred resignation plan, February 7, 2025
"Most nurses, doctors and other staff caring for military veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs are not eligible for the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, according to an email sent Friday by VA leadership to staff. Nurses had been among those who received the original offer, but their unions had discouraged them from accepting, saying an exodus would directly and immediately affect the care of its 9.1 million enrolled veterans... Nurses for the VA — the federal government’s largest employer — comprise the biggest single group of federal workers, numbering more than 100,000 and accounting for 5% of all full-time permanent employees, according to an Associated Press analysis of personnel data."
apnews.com - Nurses military veterans affairs trump deferred resignation