Federal employees' overall satisfaction, confidence in their senior leaders and confidence in the performance appraisal process have grown over the last two years, according to a survey released Monday by the Office of Personnel Management.

The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey — the new version of the Federal Human Capital Survey — found that 71.5 percent of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs. That is three percentage points higher than the 2008 survey found.

Satisfaction with pay also grew by 5.4 percentage points over the last two years, to 65.8 percent.

Federal employees are now more likely to say their performance appraisals fairly reflect their performance. OPM said that 68.4 percent of respondents this year thought their appraisals were fair, up from 63.2 percent in 2008. The percentage of employees who said they know what they have to do to earn higher performance ratings grew by 3.5 percentage points, to 67.8 percent.

But most federal employees are still not satisfied with how performance is recognized, despite some increases in satisfaction. About 36 percent of employees — up almost five percentage points — said differences in performance are recognized, 26.3 percent of employees said pay raises are based on performance, 43.5 percent said awards are performance-based, and 30.8 percent said steps are taken to deal with poor performers who can't or won't shape up.

Employees increasingly indicated conversations with their supervisors about their performance are worthwhile — up from 56.2 percent in 2008 to 62.4 percent this year. And 66 percent of employees said their supervisors give them opportunities to demonstrate leadership skills — up more than five percentage points from 2008.

The survey found a nearly four percentage-point increase — to 55.6 percent — in the percentage of employees reporting a high level of respect for senior leaders.

The largest leap in satisfaction came in employees' confidence that they can disclose law or rule violations without fear of reprisal. In 2008, 50.5 percent employees felt comfortable disclosing those violations, but this year, that grew to 61.6 percent.

But the survey found a steep drop in cooperation in the federal workforce. About 74.7 percent of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, "The people I work with cooperate to get the job done," down from 83.9 percent in 2008. And 73.1 percent of employees said their co-workers share knowledge with one another — down 2.3 percentage points from 2008.

Employees are starting to feel the pinch of limited resources and growing responsibilities. The percentage of employees who said they have enough people, materials and budget to get their jobs done dropped by one percentage point, to 50.1 percent. And the percentage of employees who said their workload is reasonable dropped from 60 percent to 59.1 percent.

OPM surveyed almost 505,000 employees across the government in February and March. More than 263,000 completed the survey.