Federal Employees Continue to Retire in Greater Numbers Than in Previous Years

Federal employees continue to file for retirement at an increased pace compared with recent years, continuing a trend that began more than a year ago.

According to statistics from the Office of Personnel Management, 7,510 federal workers filed for retirement in November. That figure is a 34 percent increase over the same month in 2017, when 5,572 employees retired.

In October, the number of retirement requests increased as well, although only slightly. That month, 9,012 federal employees filed for retirement, compared with 8,850 for the same period last year.

Statistics for the last two months suggest a continuation of the trend where increasing numbers of workers are leaving the civil service. Over the course of fiscal 2018, which ended on Sept. 30, retirements were up 24 percent from the previous year.

Federal workforce observers have long predicted a retirement wave. Currently, 14 percent of federal workers are eligible to retire, according to a July report, and that number is expected to increase to 30 percent within five years.

Despite the rising retirement numbers, OPM has for the most part kept the backlog of pending claims in check. Last month, the agency processed far more claims (8,077) than it did the previous November (5,138) or the previous month (6,911). 

The existing backlog at the end of November was 19,162, a decrease from 19,729 in October. That is also below the total of 19,294 a year ago.

Now, the agency will prepare for the annual spike of retirements that occurs in January. At the beginning of 2018, OPM received 14,590 new claims, and the backlog peaked at 24,225 pending claims the following month.

Expanding Veterans Preference

On the policy front, OPM on Thursday published a rule in the Federal Register that expands who is eligible to be hired by the federal government under veterans’ preference standards.

The rule implements a provision of the 2015 Gold Star Fathers Act, which allows parents of a veteran who died overseas or is permanently disabled to be eligible for veterans’ preference hiring standards at federal agencies, provided the parent is unmarried, separated from their spouse, or if their spouse is also permanently disabled.

This measure permanently implements an interim rule issued by OPM in December 2016, although the language of that rule was partially altered to refer to parents, rather than “mothers.”