What is the data source used for the Best Places rankings?
Our 2009 rankings are based on the 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey, which was administered by the Office of Personnel Management in August and September 2008. This survey was distributed to a stratified random sample of over 417,000 executive branch full-time permanent employees. The survey achieved a response rate of 51 percent, resulting in a final sample of over 212,000 employees. The agencies included in the study account for 97 percent of the executive branch workforce. In the Best Places rankings, we used OPM’s weighted data to represent all federal employees. For more information about OPM’s methodology, please click here.
