WASHINGTON, D.C. -- NASA tops this year's

The agency scored higher than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Office of Management and Budget among the Top 3. There were no Department of Defense agencies ranked in the top 11.

The federal Office of Personnel Management asked 1.5 million full- and part-time civilian government workers in the spring of 2012 to fill out a survey on job satisfaction. Nearly 700,000 did reply, which is more than any previous response.

"At the broadest level, employees continue to believe their work is important and are willing to contribute extra effort to get the job done," OPM Director John Berry said in a statement this week. "At the government-wide level, telework opportunities show a clear positive impact, with clearly higher engagement and satisfaction scores among teleworkers at all pay levels. Telework-eligible employees also grew as a population, from one out of four to one out of three federal employees."

Even with the stresses of tight budgets, pay freezes, deployments and other issues, more than two thirds of all federal employees would still recommend their agency as a good place to work, Berry said. One troubling development, however, is a break in the longstanding pattern of improvement in employees' perception of their jobs. This year, government-wide scores "dropped on every index," the report said, "and 36 items decreased between two and five percentage points from 2011 to 2012." Click here to read more about how the survey was conducted. Click here to read the entire report.



The other top agencies in the survey after the Top 3 were, in order, the National Credit Union Administration, Department of State, Federal Trade Commission, General Services Administration. Department of Commerce, Office of Personnel Management, Railroad Retirement Board and the Department of Transportation.

Any theories on why the DOD didn't show up near the top of the list? Add your comments below.

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