Full-time equivalent From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Full-time equivalent ( FTE ) or whole time equivalent ( WTE ) is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable [1] across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a worker's or student's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization. An FTE of 1.0 is equivalent to a full-time worker or student, while an FTE of 0.5 signals half of a full work or school load. [2] Contents 1 U.S. Federal Government 2 In education 2.1 Example 3 Notes 4 References U.S. Federal Government [ edit ] In the U.S. Federal Government, FTE is defined by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as the number of total hours worked divided by the maximum number of compensable hours in a full-time schedule as