The next sound you hear will be the stampeding federal workers who are retiring in droves to escape the new president — or maybe not, says Senior Corresponden...
Despite predictions of an exodus of unhappy/fearful federal workers, the Retirement Tsunami predicted by many has, once again, failed to happen. For the third straight month after feds (and the rest of the nation) learned who won in November, the number of federal workers who retired in February (9,114) is about 2,000 fewer than the number of retirements in February 2016. While the Office of Personnel Management’s backlog of claims processed is rising, the number of people retiring is actually falling.
In January, about 100 fewer feds retired than did in the same month last year. The January 2017 retirement total was 3,300 fewer than the number of feds who put in their retirement papers in January 2015.
According to the Government Accountability Office, about 31 percent of the total federal workforce— roughly 600,000 federal and postal workers — is eligible to retire right now. Today if they wish. A survey conducted by Federal News Radio indicated that 35 percent of those responding said the transition “would play a role in their retirement plans.” Another 18 percent said they would wait to see who emerged victorious last November and would become their new POTUS. Now we know, yet the predicted surge-to-retire hasn’t happened. How come? Several possibilities:
As a result of the Y2K problem, the U.S. Naval Observatory, which operates the master clock of the country’s official time, gave the date on its website as 1 Jan. 19100 on the morning of Jan. 1, 2000.
Source: Wikipedia
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Mike Causey is senior correspondent for Federal News Network and writes his daily Federal Report column on federal employees’ pay, benefits and retirement.
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