Cleared Workforce Reaches 5.5 Million Eligible; Active Access Holds Flat

The cleared-eligible population has grown to approximately 5.5 million, up from 4.6M in FY2021, but active access positions remain flat at 2.2-2.4M. The gap suggests a structural matching problem. For IC applicants, the bottleneck is billet placement rather than clearance acquisition. TS/SCI with polygraph timelines run 180-365 days.