A Brief Guide to Workforce Statistics

For Airmen and Guardians

Nelson Lim, Sarah Nicole Kosic, Eric I. Salehi, Helin Hernandez

ToolPublished Jun 12, 2025

The Department of Air Force (DAF) has long recognized the importance of workforce statistics in managing its personnel effectively. By leveraging workforce statistics, the DAF has made informed decisions that optimize personnel readiness and effectiveness, adapting to changing needs and maintaining operational excellence. This user guide is intended to help airmen and guardians without a background in statistics use data resources to gain insights into the composition of the DAF workforce and be able to interpret statistical findings, such as in policy reports. The types of analyses discussed in this guide may be particularly relevant to airmen and guardians who work in personnel, manpower, and training and development. Additionally, DAF leaders, decisionmakers, and policy analysts can use this guide to better leverage data-driven insights when evaluating DAF policy. All airmen and guardians reading this guide will better understand how data-driven decisions are made in the DAF and improve their ability to communicate about data with their peers and supervisors.

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Lim, Nelson, Sarah Nicole Kosic, Eric I. Salehi, and Helin Hernandez, A Brief Guide to Workforce Statistics: For Airmen and Guardians. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TLA3179-3.html.
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The research reported here was sponsored by the Deputy Assistant Secretary (Force Resilience) of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs for Force Resilience (SAF/MRF) and conducted within the Workforce, Development, and Health Program of RAND Project AIR FORCE.

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