The Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) has posted updated figures
for the number of employees at the Social Security Administration.
- December 2013 61,957
- September 2013 62,543
- 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
I wonder how long has it been since the headcount was last under 62,000?
ReplyDeleteA good start. eServices work, so this is a natural and expected outcome. After all, it occurred under a democrat president and senate.
ReplyDelete"a good start"
ReplyDeleteyou've got no idea.
We have less employees than over a decade ago with way more applicants, recipients, etc. And so much of all those peoples' issues cannot be completed in a totally automated way (i.e. by themselves via computer--even phone lines require employees...)
You can't let staff go down by about 15% over a roughly 10-year period while population continues its 3% or so annual growth and expect things not to faulter. This is not good--just go to your local field office for proof. And yeah, we could totally cut bloated HQ and regional HQ staffs, but that wouldn't remotely cut it. We need thousands of field/district office employees.
Is there a connection between the declining employee count and declining allowance rates?
ReplyDeleteNO.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, you would expect the opposite -- fewer people would mean more pressure to pay cases, because that gets rid of the case quickly and allows for more cases to be processed.
Allowance rates are declining at the hearing level. So fewer people does not mean "more pressure to pay cases." The practice of "paying down the backlog" may have okay under Astrue - but not anymore.
ReplyDelete