Best places to work in the federal government

The Partnership for Public Service (PPS) has released this year’s list of best places to work in the federal government — and although several large agencies and departments may have shuffled places slightly in the rankings, eight of the top 10 “best” large agencies also were ranked at the top last year.

Among large agencies in 2010, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Government Accountability Office remained in first and second place, respectively, the same as in 2009. Rounding out the top 10, in order, were the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Smithsonian Institution, NASA, Social Security Administration, State Department, General Services Administration, Justice Department, and (collectively) the Intelligence Community.

While the third and fourth agencies on the list — the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Smithsonian Institution, were new to the rankings, all of the rest of the top 10 large agencies and departments were ranked somewhere in the top 10 last year as well.

The bottom 10 large government organizations on the list were, starting with 23rd place, the Labor Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Agriculture Department, Transportation Department, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Homeland Security Department Small Business Administration, Education Department, and — tied for last place — Housing and Urban Development Department and National Archives and Records Administration.

Altogether, PPS ranks 290 large and small federal agencies, departments, and subcomponent organizations. Agencies also are ranked separately on other criteria such as work-life balance, leadership and pay.

PPS, working with American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation, drew the rankings from the Office of Personnel Management’s biannual governmentwide employee satisfaction survey of 263,000 federal employees.

PPS also launched a new Web site -- www.bestplacestowork.org -- in conjunction with the release of the rankings.