In a close contest, NASA edged out more than a half-dozen federal agencies in a 2012  U. S. Office of Professional Management survey of the best places to work within the U.  S. federal government.

NASA, with a 74 percent employee satisfaction ranking, topped the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 73; the Office of Management and Budget, 72; National Credit Union Administration; 72; the State Department, 71; Federal Trade Commission, 70 and General Services Administration, 70, in the rankings.

“It is my extreme pleasure to announce that NASA has ranked No. 1 in employee job satisfaction in the 2012 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (EVS) conducted by the Office of Personnel Management. This survey offers an assessment of how federal employees view their jobs and the Agencies for which they work, and I am extremely proud of our top ranking this year,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a pre-Thanksgiving statement.

NASA Administration Charles Bolden. Photo Credit/NASA

 

“The Employee Viewpoint Survey is important at NASA as a federal agency and to me as its senior executive.  We in senior Agency leadership don’t always have the opportunity to personally engage with employees to learn how they view their work environment and hear their suggestions for improving it,” said Bolden.

In all, the OPM surveyed 1.6 million federal workings of fully and part-time classification. Nearly 700,000 of those polled responded at new high from previous workforce surveys dating back to 2002. Eighty-two federal agencies were surveyed in all.

The space agency counts about 18,000 federal civil servants involved in efforts to support the human and robotic exploration of space, learn more about the Earth and advance aeronautics.