Cleared Workforce Reaches 5.5 Million Eligible but Active Access Holds Flat

The cleared-eligible population has grown to approximately 5.5 million individuals, up from 4.6M in FY2021, but the number of people actually in access positions remains flat at 2.2-2.4M. The gap suggests a structural matching problem rather than a clearance shortage. For IC applicants, this means the bottleneck is increasingly about placement into billets rather than obtaining the clearance itself.