According to a research paper put out by the Reason Foundation (summarized here in .pdf), the U.S. federal government is getting old. The average federal employee is 46 years old. By 2004, nearly one-third of all federal employees will be ready for retirement. Another 21 percent will be eligible for early retirement in that year. Concludes the report: “That means that nearly 900,000 employees, or over 50 percent of the workforce could leave the federal service. By 2010 that number jumps to an astounding 71 percent....”
Happy days. This means that many will leave the federal workforce over the next 10 years since, by definition, federal employees dislike work and are unhappy in their careers. If Bush is serious about his small government rhetoric, he would instruct his political appointees not to replace these workers and to implement the end of the ”era of big government” -- although I won’t hold my breath. One man’s opportunity to reduce the size of the state is simply another man’s opportunity to provide patronage to a new generation.
That Graying Federal Workforce
All Rights Reserved ©
