Less than one half of one percent of federal government workers were fired last year, according to data compiled by Federal Times, a rate six times less than the private sector.
Based on data from the Office of Personnel and Budget, of the government’s 2,054,175 workers in 2012, only 9,513 were fired, a five-year low.
"The private sector fires nearly six times as many employees — about 3.2 percent — according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and whether the government fires too few people or just not the right people is the subject of continued debate," Federal Times said.
"Only seven senior executive service employees were fired out of the more than 7,100 employed by the federal government," the report also found.
The agency most likely to fire its employees is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which at only 3 percent of the federal worker population, accounted for 15 percent of all firings.
John Palguta, vice president for policy at the Partnership for Public Service, told Federal Times that TSA employees are "not granted the same due process rights of other feds to contest firings," and can be fired for things like sleeping at work.
"TSA is relatively quick to terminate TSA employees for a wide range of offenses that for other federal employees might only result in a letter or warning or a suspension," he said.
"Issues such as participating in an office betting pools, falling asleep on the job or not following established protocols could all trigger termination," according to Palguta.
Homeland Security (DHS) fired the most of any major department, letting almost one percent of its workforce go. It is extremely hard to get fired from the Department of Energy (0.24 percent), the State Department, (0.22 percent), the Justice Department (0.20), Social Security Administration (0.18 percent), and NASA (0.07 percent), who rounded out the bottom five.
Not listed was the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which had a hard time firing an employee who watched porn at his desk for six hours a day.