Posted on 05/08/2008 10:35:43 AM PDT by qam1
The Federal Aviation Administration. The Social Security Administration. The National Science Foundation. The Treasury Department. All could lose as much as a quarter of their employees by 2012, mostly because of retirements. They are not alone.
Across the government, about a third of full-time employees will retire in the next five years, according to estimates prepared by the Office of Personnel Management. The turnover could be even higher in the ranks of federal executives and supervisors.
From the start of the Bush administration, agencies have been preparing for the churning that will be caused by the baby boom retirement wave. But there are growing concerns that the government may be at a disadvantage in competing for talent, especially among young people, because of its slow and cumbersome hiring practices.....
........
The partnership calculates that from fiscal 2002 to 2006, the number of full-time federal employees who filed for retirement increased sharply, from about 30,000 annually to more than 45,000. The OPM has projected that the peak retirement years will be 2008 through 2010, when up to 60,000 employees are projected to leave each year.
By the partnership's reckoning, federal agencies will lose nearly 530,000 employees, many in leadership positions, by 2012. That's a rather alarming number.
The OPM has launched a series of efforts to ramp up federal recruitment efforts. They include television advertisements, upgrades to USAJobs.gov and the development of a 45-day hiring model for most federal jobs.
Congress also has made changes to civil service hiring law, allowing agencies to make hiring offers more quickly and to increase the number of qualified applicants whom managers can consider for a job.
In addition, Congress has authorized agencies to offer student loan reimbursements to top-notch college graduates in hopes of making the government a more attractive employer........
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
CHURN? To HE— with churn!
CUT!
The article is about civilian Federal employees soon to be retiring in large numbers, but the head line said something about a “brain drain”.
I don’t see the connection.
I’m a part-time federal employee (Dept of Education)—I’m almost 40 years old in my office (of about 40 people) and I am the second-youngest there, and believe me it is depressing working with people who talk about nothing but retirement.
My coworkers are all in their late 50s, 60s. . .all on their way out, and we’ve been told there will be no rehiring—just contracting out. Which is probably a good thing. Contractors do a much better job than the feds do, and cheaper. ..
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Ask not what you can do for your country.
Ask what can you do for each other?
Seriously, tell me how this is a bad thing?
Carolyn
Well, shucks. Maybe we'll just have to make government smaller and ask the private sector to handle more of our daily activities.
It's what I've faced as a member of the "baby bust" (the group following the boom). Companies have no "loyalty" to employees, you can and will be replaced with a cheaper alternative. Get you off the permanent expense list. Get you off the benefits package.
There isn't a lack of younger talent out there. There is an unwillingness to hire permanent workers and keep them "until retirement". 7 years, 12 years... is considered a good run these days.
Here’s an easy solution to the bloated government problem. Let them retire, then don’t replace them.
While we’re at it, means test Social Security so that those getting bloated federal pensions don’t get social security, essentially double dipping at the trough.
“My coworkers are all in their late 50s, 60s. . .all on their way out, and we’ve been told there will be no rehiring—just contracting out. Which is probably a good thing. Contractors do a much better job than the feds do, and cheaper. ..”
No kidding. 90% of the fed workers retired the day they were hired.
Always looking to hire an underling or a subcontractor to do their job so all they do is supervise. Think sidewalk consultant.
The cost of these bozoes is only the tip of the iceberg. The regulations these clowns have made to justify their existence is destroying the USA.
That’s the American capitalist system. Labor is a commodity like any other commodity. What we receive in payment depends on the value of our labor. We need to make ourselves more valuable or suffer the consequences. Or move to an inefficient socialist system like Germany or France. Good luck!
“Always looking to hire an underling or a subcontractor to do their job so all they do is supervise. Think sidewalk consultant.”
This is becoming the mindset of the corporate world as well.
For the rest of us, this is not news at all. The Purging (actually, Ethnic Cleansing) has been underway for decades, as semi-competence gives way to feel-good PC.
We could simply do without a full 80% of non-military government employees.
Anyway, with ZERO bottom line to maintain and nearly ZERO accountability, government employees tend towards laziness, inefficiency, low productivity, and incompetence.
If I have just gored any Freeper government employee’s ox, I’m so sorry, but it is what it is. American business over the last two decades have been forced by the marketplace to increase productivity — do more with less — while the bloated government bureaucracies demand MORE and MORE turf and employees, and their employees demand ever-increasing salary, benefits, and a GROWTH PATH for EVERYONE. Fooey on them.
And don’t even get me started about GOVERNMENT UNIONS. Why in the world do GOVERNMENT TROUGH-FEEDERS need a LABOR UNION? I’d like to see a Constitutional amendment PROHIBITING unionization of ANY AND ALL federal employees. And hopefully some states would also get the clue and do the same!
AMEN Brother! It's not just the Feds either. Here in central IL we pay sky high property taxes, much of which go to suppor the local govt worker defined benefit retirement plans. Those of us in the private sector generally have to pretty much bank on our 401K's doing well to even have a chance of a decent life in retirment.
Due to the massive dumbing down of the Imperial Federal Government School System that has taken place over the last 40 or so years, doing a one-for-one replacement of the retiring workers may be difficult.
Perfect time to streamline these agencies.
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