> "millions of private contractors"
?
?
Millions is probably overstating it though.
FTA:
"An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances."
Which might place a rough estimate of tens to hundreds of thousands (depending on how many would be in the Military, work directly for the Govt, or work on other programmes)