Clearer numbers on the federal workforce are coming into view, after the Office of Personnel Management launched a major update to one of its largest data assets on Thursday.

A new federal workforce data website from OPM aims to deliver information on the federal workforce faster, with more transparency and more frequent updates, than its predecessor, FedScope.

“This is a major step forward for accountability and data-driven decision-making across government,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said Thursday in a press release.

OPM’s new platform also reaffirms the significant reshaping the federal workforce experienced over the last year. The latest workforce data, now publicly available up to November 2025, shows governmentwide staffing levels at a decade low. According to OPM’s numbers, the government shed well over 300,000 federal employees last year, impacting virtually all executive branch agencies. When accounting for hiring numbers, there has been a net loss of nearly 220,000 federal employees since January 2025.

Data on federal employees’ bargaining unit status has also shifted significantly under the Trump administration. OPM’s new data platform shows that the share of the federal workforce represented by unions dropped from about 56% to about 38% over the last year, as a result of President Donald Trump’s orders to end collective bargaining at most agencies.

And agencies reported a 75% decrease in telework hours between January and October 2025, due to Trump’s on-site requirements for the federal workforce, which the president initiated on his first day in office.

The new website is the result of a major update to OPM’s legacy data asset, FedScope, which had been in need of significant modernization for years. In a report from 2016, the Government Accountability Office recommended that OPM update the FedScope platform and improve the availability of workforce data.

Users of OPM’s new public-facing website can filter the workforce data by geographic location, agency, age, education level, bargaining unit status — and much more.

Additional data that was not accessible on the legacy FedScope platform is also now readily available, including information on retirement eligibility, telework levels, performance ratings and hiring activities for the federal workforce.

Information on race and ethnicity across the federal workforce, however, is not featured on OPM’s new platform. That’s due to Trump’s executive order last year to eliminate diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) across government.

OPM had been working to update several of its workforce data assets since at least the end of the Biden administration. Federal News Network reported in early January 2025 that the agency was already in the process of building out its data management capabilities for FedScope and the Enterprise Human Resources Integration system (EHRI).

OPM, under the Trump administration, then announced plans last July to relaunch FedScope with “immediate enhancements.”

“OPM will continue releasing new data, visuals and features on the site each month and will iterate on the platform as user feedback is received,” OPM said in its press release Thursday. “This launch represents just the beginning, with regular updates and new enhancements planned on an ongoing basis.”

The post OPM data overhaul reveals deeper federal workforce insights first appeared on Federal News Network.

© Federal News Network

The Seattle Seahawks gave blind and low-vision fans a new way to follow game action this season as one of several teams testing a device from Seattle startup OneCourt.

OneCourt’s laptop device uses generative audio and haptics to translate live gameplay into trackable vibrations, so fans can follow the action with their fingertips. The users hear the team’s radio broadcast that is synced with the device with almost little to no time delay, according to the Seahawks.

Testers at Lumen Field in Seattle used the devices at games, including against the Indianapolis Colts on Dec. 14, as part of the NFL’s pilot program exploring such accessibility. The Jaguars, Vikings and Falcons were the other teams in the pilot.

Participants shared feedback with the league and the Seahawks about how the device performed and takeaways will be analyzed and applied to an in-stadium accessibility strategy.

“Football is at its best when every fan can be part of the moment,” said Jonathan Beane, NFL senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, in a statement. “The OneCourt pilot showed how innovative technology can bring fans who are blind or have low vision even closer to the game, and the response was incredibly powerful.”

OneCourt was co-founded by a group of University of Washington graduates, including CEO Jerred Mace.

The NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers were the first professional sports team to provide OneCourt devices at every home game.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture added a page to the space history books today by sending the first wheelchair user into space.

“It was the coolest experience,” said Michaela “Michi” Benthaus, a German-born aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency who sustained a spinal cord injury in a mountain biking accident in 2018.

Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket ship lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 8:15 a.m. CT (6:15 a.m. PT).

An initial launch attempt had been called off on Thursday because the flight team “observed an issue with our built-in checks prior to flight,” Blue Origin said. It didn’t provide further details about the issue, but today’s countdown went off without a hitch.

This was the 37th New Shepard mission, and the 16th to carry humans on a brief ride above the 100-kilometer (62-mile) altitude level that marks the internationally accepted boundary of space. Eighty-six people, including Bezos himself, have now flown on New Shepard. Six have gone multiple times.

Benthaus was one of six crew members on today’s mission, known as NS-37. In a 2023 interview published by the Technical University of Munich, she said she set her mind on becoming an astronaut when she was 10 years old.

When Benthaus lost the use of her legs, she initially thought her flight into space “was never going to happen.” But in 2022, her hopes got a big boost when she experienced a zero-G flight arranged through AstroAccess, a project that’s dedicated to paving the way for spacefliers with disabilities. Last year, she was the commander of an analog space mission conducted at the Lunares Research Station in Poland.

Now the 33-year-old has blazed a new trail for space access. “You should never give up on your dreams,” she said after today’s flight.

Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post to the X social-media platform that the mission marked “another step toward making spaceflight accessible for everyone.” Phil Joyce, Blue Origin’s senior vice president for the New Shepard program, said in a mission recap that “Michi’s flight is particularly meaningful, demonstrating that space is for everyone, and we are proud to help her achieve this dream.”

Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin has been working for several years to improve accessibility at its launch facility in Texas — for example, by adding an elevator to the seven-story launch tower. A business resource group named New Hawking, in honor of the late wheelchair-using physicist Stephen Hawking, helped lead the way. Blue Origin says it has previously flown people who are hard of hearing, have limited mobility or limb differences, have low vision or are legally blind.

Blue Origin didn’t need to make significant modifications in the New Shepard crew capsule for today’s flight. But launch commentator Joel Eby said the mission team made “a few ground system improvements,” such as providing a bench that Benthaus could use to get into and out of the capsule with assistance from others.

During their 10-minute flight, Benthaus and the rest of the crew rose to an altitude of 106 kilometers (65.7 miles). They experienced a few minutes of zero-gravity and views of a curving Earth against the blackness of space. At the end of the mission, the booster made an autonomous landing not far from the launch pad, while the crew capsule descended to a parachute-assisted touchdown in the West Texas desert.

Afterward, Benthaus said she enjoyed the ride. “I tried to turn upside-down,” she said.

Benthaus’ crewmates included:

• Joey Hyde, a physicist and quantitative investor who recently retired from his career at Citadel, a leading hedge fund. He lives in Florida with his wife and five children.
• Hans Koenigsmann, a German-American aerospace engineer whose career has been dedicated to advancing reusable spacecraft and launch vehicles, most notably as an early team member at SpaceX. Koenigsmann played a supporting role in arranging Benthaus’ flight and occasionally helped her get around. After landing, Koenigsmann said the spaceflight was “actually more intense than I thought.”
• Neal Milch, a business executive and entrepreneur who launched his career through Laundrylux, a family-owned business. He now serves as the chair of the Board of Trustees at the Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit biomedical research institute.
• Adonis Pouroulis, an entrepreneur, investor and mining engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the natural resources and energy sector. He is the founder and chairman of Pella Resources, co-founder of Energy Revolution Ventures, chairman of Rainbow Rare Earths, and the CEO of Chariot Limited.
• Jason Stansell, a computer scientist and a self-proclaimed space nerd rooted in West Texas. He’s been watching from a front-row seat as the space industry has expanded to offer opportunities for commercial spaceflight. 

In addition to the crew, NS-37 carried more than 20,000 postcards submitted by students and others through a program organized by the Club for the Future, Blue Origin’s nonprofit educational foundation. The featured partners for this latest batch of postcards were UNIQLO, Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Rocket Day and Give Kids the World Village.

Blue Origin typically doesn’t reveal how much people pay to take trips on New Shepard. In some cases, crew members have flown as invited guests. On the other end of the spectrum, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun paid $28 million for a ticket in a widely publicized auction.

The suborbital space program’s previous milestones include flying the world’s oldest spaceflier (former test pilot Ed Dwight, who was 90 when he rode on New Shepard last year); the world’s youngest spaceflier (Oliver Daemen, who was 18 when he flew with Bezos and two others in 2021). and the first married couple to reach the final frontier together on a commercial spaceship (Marc and Sharon Hagle in 2022).

Update for 8:40 a.m. PT: NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, congratulated Blue Origin and the NS-37 crew, with special shout-outs for Koenigsmann and Benthaus:

Congrats to the Blue Origin team and the NS-37 crew–including @HansKoenigsmann one of the great engineers of this new era. His work enabled so many to reach space–I am glad he finally made the journey himself. pic.twitter.com/hgtKRSZpPq

— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) December 20, 2025

Congratulations, Michi! You just inspired millions to look up and imagine what is possible 🚀 https://t.co/RMHa54o6Xh

— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) December 20, 2025

This is an updated version of a report first published on Dec. 18.