Astronaut Chris Cassidy performs a space walk on the International Space Station

Astronaut Chris Cassidy performs a space walk on the International Space Station NASA/AP

The 5 Best Places to Work in Government

These agencies rose to the top in 2013, as rated by their employees.

The results are in.

The Partnership for Public Service, using data collected by the Office of Personnel Management, has published its annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government study.

Here are the top five agencies -- as ranked by an index score measuring employee satisfaction and commitment to the job --  in three different categories: large agencies (more than 15,000 employees), mid-size agencies (1,000 to 14,999 employees) and small agencies (100 to 999 employees). All scores are out of a possible 100.

Top Five Large Agencies

1.       NASA (74)

2.       Commerce Department (67.6)

3.       Intelligence community (67.3)

4.       State Department (65.6)

5.       Justice Department (63.5)

Top Five Mid-Size Agencies

1.       Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (82.3)

2.       Smithsonian Institution (77.2)

3.       Government Accountability Office (74.4)

4.       Nuclear Regulatory Commission (73.8 - tie)

4.       Federal Trade Commission (73.8 - tie)

Top Five Small Agencies

1.       Surface Transportation Board (84.7)

2.       National Endowment for the Humanities (84.6)

3.       Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (84.5)

4.       Peace Corps (78.2)

5.       Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (73.7)

Read our full coverage of the PPS study here