Cleared Workforce Hits 5.4 Million Eligible; Active Clearance Holders Remain Flat as Matching Gap Widens

The cleared-eligible population now exceeds 5.4 million individuals, but a growing share are not actively using their clearance—creating a large talent pool of veterans and former government employees that is available but unmatched to open positions. Defense priorities added modest increases in cyber, intelligence, and technical military end strength, but the workforce gap is increasingly a matching problem rather than a clearance shortage.