OPM prepares for more downsizing

The Office of Personnel Management, in anticipation of further government downsizing, plans to continue offering career transition programs through 2001.

Career transition programs were mandated by a 1995 presidential memo requiring agencies to choose recently displaced feds when filling government positions. During a time of rapid federal downsizing, the program was intended to help employees affected by reductions-in-force (RIFs) find new jobs within the government and exercise special selection priority for vacancies in other agencies.

Career transition programs were scheduled to end Sept. 30 of this year, but OPM wants to extend the sunset date for another two years due to the programs' "track record of success, and because federal government downsizing and restructuring are expected to continue for the next few years at least," OPM said in announcing a set of interim regulations governing the programs.

Once the regulations are finalized, the priority placement methods will continue for the next two years with a few minor technical changes. A 1998 study by OPM's Office of Merit Systems Oversight concluded that "more stringent priority placement methods are not needed at this time."

During fiscal 1998, 3,387 feds went through involuntary RIFs. But nearly 5,000 employees were placed in new federal jobs through career transition assistance programs, according to OPM statistics.

In 1997, federal agencies eliminated more than 38,000 jobs, but only about 5,000 employees left involuntarily. Between 1993 and 1998, agencies cut a total of 367,151 positions.

Number of employees separated by RIFs

Surplus employees made eligible for career transition assistance in their agency