NCPA - Daily Policy Digest - Who Will Do The Government's Work?

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
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Who Will Do The Government's Work?

The General Accounting Office has been issuing dozens of studies calling attention to a grave problem: the graying of the 1.7 million-employee federal workforce and a tidal wave of expected retirements.

Overall, about one-half of all government workers will be eligible to retire in the next three years.

Only 7.5 percent of the federal workforce is under age 30 -- while 38 percent is over 50.

The implications for prosecuting the war on terrorism are considerable -- since more than 30 percent of people working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the State and Defense departments will be eligible to retire by 2006.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will see about 77 percent of its senior executive staff eligible to retire by 2005.

Many of those approaching retirement were baby-boomers who answered Cold War-era calls to public service -- and who have since then risen to high positions in a host of critical departments and agencies.

Federal programs may only have worsened the prospects for recruiting replacements for the retirees. College graduates are shunning government service in favor of higher-paying jobs in private industry -- in part so they can pay off their college loans.

Source: Kelly K. Spors and John J. Fialka, "Filling a Public-Service Void," Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2002.

For text (WSJ subscribers)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB1032386377536071755.djm

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http://www.ncpa.org/iss/gov

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