The Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) has posted updated figures
for the number of employees at the Social Security Administration.
- June 2013 62,877
- March 2013 63,777
- December 2012 64,538
- September 2012 65,113
- September 2011 67,136
- December 2010 70,270
- December 2009 67,486
- September 2009 67,632
- December 2008 63,733
- September 2008 63,990
- September 2007 62,407
- September 2006 63,647
- September 2005 66,147
- September 2004 65,258
- September 2003 64,903
- September 2002 64,648
- September 2001 65,377
- September 2000 64,521
Since the Republicans took over the House of Representatives in January 2011, the number of employees at Social Security has gone down by 7,393, an 11% reduction, in the face of a rapidly increasing workload. This may understate the staffing reduction since Social Security was employing a good deal of employee overtime prior to the 2010 election. There is now little employee overtime available at Social Security.
10 comments:
And this probably doesn't cover the state DDSs. I know our DDS is hemorrhaging examiners (with an anti-union governor, it's not so fun to be a state worker anymore). That backlog is getting mighty, mighty big....
Please explain the connection with the Republican majority in the House in Jan. 2011 with the number of SSA employees? Is this the result of an incredible conspiracy that continued for at least a decade beginning in the mid '70s to hire those employees who would become retirement age after 2005? The issue of balanced staffing is not decided on the 2 year election cycle for the House. Getting a federal job is usually a lifetime career, but workloads are not constant. Everything that may be needed now is not what will be needed in 3-5 years. More and more work is processed self-help and online with improved, faster, and more accurate technology for both the public and employees. This alone justifies a smaller staff. Flexibility and reasonable prioritization of workloads is essential. Also important is employee accountability for all (including management) so good employees are rewarded and bad employees are let go. For many offices or departments with over 20 people, there is a poorly performing employee who should be replaced with a net result of improved public service with the same staff count. In larger offices, the same result might occur without a 1 for 1 replacement. More important than employee counts is the need to hire and promote the most capable.
And yet strangely our ODAR office has overtime offered for both Saturday and Sunday this weekend..
12:19- Yes, there have been a lot of retirements. But with the Republicans blocking any increase in SSAs operating budget (actually attempting to slash it), these retirments cannot be replaced (hiring freeze). The tech advancements you mention have certainly helped, but are not near enough to overcome this attrition in the face of an ever increasing workload.
The last place overtime is needed at at ODAR. Compared to what is going on in the field offices, ODAR is running efficiently. I tried to schedule an appointment for an SSI application for a client and the earliest appointment was 2 months out.
The main problem at SSA is the SSI program. If it could be sunsetted, turned back to the states or otherwise decoupled from SSA, the staffing problem would evaporate.
And today, during our Wednesday afternoon 'adjudication' time after the office closed at noon, we were subject to hopefully the final hour of soft skill training, Embracing Diversity. I have been waiting for one of the presenters to start singing Kumbaya but it hasn't happened yet. Personally, I would rather clear claims and process wage reports. But SSA thinks we need to know how to not just get along with but celebrate everything that makes us different. Not sure why we can't celebrate the things that makes us the same, like freedom and democracy. We were also offered US constitution training, but that was optional.
Don't care how much training they give; I will never embrace such things as pedophila or murder or rape. Not too crazy about liars and thieves either. Nope. If that makes me judgmental and prejudicial, I will wear that hat.
12:19, you can look at sequestration as the prime example of the Republican majority in 2011 and our staffing levels now. People come and go every year; the problem is now we have no money to replace them.
One could argue that we could stand to trim some fat but the staffing losses are not evenly targeted, and in some cases we are losing the best people while the worst stay on because they know they have it good. These poor performers never cared about workload and know they have it good and can never be fired anyway.
workloads are not rapidly increasing, mr. hall. they are rapidly decreasing actually. check the facts. so, you have less work incoming, more work coming in on the internet, better-smarter-faster systems - these things free up employee time and make it possible to lose employees and still keep up with work.
well, Mr 9:14, I really have no words for your unique view. I retired at the end of last year after over 35 years, having given all that I felt I could, and seeing that things would never get better. "decreasing workloads"? Wow.
Post a Comment