Retention of Early-Career Federal Employees: The Role of Organizational Support and Satisfaction

High turnover among early-career federal employees threatens workforce stability and public service delivery. We used data from the 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (N = 625,568) to examine how perceived organizational support and employee satisfaction related to turnover intention, with a focus on employees under age 40. Structural equation modeling revealed a strong positive relationship between perceived organizational support and employee satisfaction (β = .97), and a negative relationship between employee satisfaction and turnover intention (β = −.83). These relationships emerged more strongly among employees under age 40 than among older employees. Supplementary analyses showed that employee satisfaction was most strongly associated with lower intentions to leave federal service for nonfederal employment. In contrast, when perceived organizational support was not accompanied by employee satisfaction, analyses revealed higher turnover intention, suggesting a perceived employability effect. Overall, our findings highlight employee satisfaction as a central mechanism linking organizational support to turnover intention and suggest that support initiatives are most effective when they are experienced as satisfying in employees’ day-to-day work experiences.