Federal law categorizes federal civilian employees into three types of service: (1) the competitive service, (2) the excepted service, and (3) the Senior Executive Service. These different types of service may be distinguished by different selection, compensation, and other standards. The Civil Service Act of 1883, popularly known as the Pendleton Act, and the resulting federal personnel system created the competitive service. The competitive service hiring process evaluates an applicant’s relative level of qualifications for a position through fair and open competition in order to fill a vacancy. This process departs from hiring practices from the era prior to the Pendleton Act in which federal employment was largely based on political affiliation or personal connections. Title 5 of the United States Code contains laws governing federal personnel and the civil service, including the federal government’s general authority to employ personnel. Competitive service positions now comprise the majority of the federal workforce’s on-board employment. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has established a process for hiring employees in the competitive service that includes several steps under three phases of activities: (1) Analyze and Announce, (2) Evaluate and Assess, and (3) Select. The hiring process for competitive service positions includes roles for both OPM and individual federal agencies. OPM sets standards, establishes processes, and provides tools that agencies use to hire personnel through the competitive process. Federal agencies are required to comply with government-wide hiring policies set by OPM, such as eligibility requirements and public vacancy announcement requirements, but they often also have discretion to implement their own hiring practices. The second Trump Administration has made significant changes to the federal hiring process for competitive service positions via several executive orders. In addition, OPM issued a memorandum in titled “Merit Hiring Plan,” which further outlines changes to the federal hiring process that implement the requirements of the Trump Administration’s executive orders on May 29, 2025. These changes include reforming the recruitment process, implementing skills-based hiring, revising the application process, and reducing time to hire. This report outlines each step of the hiring process for competitive service positions, describes the changes made by the Merit Hiring Plan that alter the competitive hiring process, and discusses potential issues for congressional consideration. These issues include the Trump Administration’s hiring freeze; developments related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the federal workforce; and skills-based assessments in the federal hiring process for competitive service positions. Note that the report focuses only on the competitive hiring process and does not discuss direct hire authorities or other specialized hiring paths.
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