Federal IT workforce aging rapidly, study shows

The federal government's information technology workforce is getting older. Almost half of government IT employees will be at least 50 years old by 2008, according to a new report.

That aging demographic will naturally lead to a wave of retirements, according to the report, which was produced by INPUT, a Virginia-based IT consulting firm.

Public sector IT workers are generally older than their private sector counterparts because federal pay has traditionally been lower, said Jennifer Geurin, the report's author. She noted that federal personnel officials have taken steps to boost pay for government IT employees, but those efforts have not been in place long enough to affect the demographics of the workforce.

Geurin said that the necessary tools are already in place to avoid a personnel shortfall. But agencies must follow through on efforts to increase pay for IT workers and implement an array of training programs in order to boost recruitment and retention efforts, she said.

"If they are headed in the direction that they say they are, I don't see there being a shortfall, I see it being a success," Geurin said.

INPUT researchers interviewed technology officials at NASA and the Transportation and Treasury departments to accompany their research. Officials agreed with the report's conclusion. One Treasury IT employee said, "Five years ago when we were talking about these issues, there was great concern; now we have turned that concern into action."

While Geurin said the federal government must continue its push to make public sector IT pay competitive to private sector workers, the report cited several other programs that will help buffer the retirement wave. Specifically, INPUT cited the CIO University program, which offers graduate-level courses for IT professionals, and the Scholarship for Service program, under which the National Science Foundation issues grants to attract undergraduates to the public service.

John Palguta, vice president for policy and research at the Partnership for Public Service, agreed that the INPUT report clearly identifies a problem. He supported Geurin's analysis that the federal government must actively support existing initiatives.

"This report shows in stark relief the challenges we face in maintaining a skilled and experienced public sector in the face of the coming wave of federal retirements," Palguta said. "At a time when productivity is increasingly determined by an organization's mastery of information technology, the steady increase in the percentage of the federal IT workforce nearing retirement should be a call to action.… Now is the time to reach out to a new generation of IT professionals so that we can build on this vast reservoir of talent and experience before it is lost."