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Washington, D.C.—Early results of the 2016 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) released today reveal persistent problems within key agencies that have suffered from frequent budget cuts, chronic understaffing and other morale-busting trends.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) today released overall and agency-specific scores for two categories—employee engagement and global satisfaction. Complete results are due out next month.

“The results released today contain bright spots but also reveal troublesome trends, underscoring the need to improve pay, staffing and working conditions for front-line federal workers,” said Tony Reardon, National President of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “Federal employees continue to endure chronic funding cuts, threats of sequestration, inadequate pay raises and attacks on federal retirement and health benefits. Those frustrations are not adequately addressed in this survey, but play a huge role in determining employee morale and satisfaction.”

Engagement and satisfaction scores rose at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), largely due to NTEU’s success in improving compensation and working conditions at those agencies. But financial regulatory employees still earn far less than their private-sector counterparts, making NTEU’s commitment to continue closing the gap critically important, Reardon said.

The slight uptick in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) scores is due, in part, to NTEU’s dogged effort to improve workplace conditions, increase staffing at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and give rank-and-file CBP employees a powerful voice. However, DHS still ranks dead last among large federal agencies and front-line employees continue to report being overworked, stressed and underpaid, Reardon said.

Among other NTEU-represented agencies, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) saw big drops in its scores compared to 2015 as workplace issues continue to take their toll.

As the nation’s largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.