Aug 30, 2021

Social Security Headcount Declines To Lowest Level Since At Least 2008


  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency. Here are Social Security's numbers as of June with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:

  •  June 2021 59,707
  • March 2021 60,675
  • December 2020 61,816
  • September 2020 61,447
  • June 2020 60,515
  • March 2020 60,659
  • December 2019 61,969
  • December 2018 62,946
  • December 2017 62,777
  • September 2017 62,297
  • June 2017 61,592
  • March 2017 62,183
  • December 2016 63,364
  • December 2015 65,518
  • December 2014 65,430
  • December 2013 61,957
  • December 2012 64,538
  • September 2011 67,136
  • December 2010 70,270
  • December 2009 67,486
  • December 2008 63,733

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

But I though Saul, Disman, et. al. were staffing up the front lines, which justified the ongoing 2 plus year hiring freeze. Was that yet another lie?

Anonymous said...

My office just lost 3 more officially this morning. We actually only have 2 people working today…it’s awesome!! Can’t wait to get nothing done!!!

Anonymous said...

10:28 dont worry, you are more productive at home, should be no problem.

Anonymous said...

@10:53

Thanks for reminding me why I hate working for the ungrateful public. You’re a beacon of hope.

Anonymous said...


10:53 is a troll whose comments should. really not be approved. SSA staffing is.a serious issue.

Anonymous said...

9:33 Glad to be of service, now back to work on my tax dollar please.

Anonymous said...

hiring has commenced in all components. Numbers will be going up for 2022.

Anonymous said...

2:06 I am not a troll, a former SSA employee, former worker for a claim mill, now a social service provider using my superpowers for good instead of evil. SSA staffing has been the same bouncing up and down for its entire history. Unless you have not been paying attention, it is a horrible job that people dont want and are leaving for greener pastures. I know, I left! Then I found out that the greass was not greener in the pasture of the reps and left that too. I know directly how difficult it is to get things done with SSA. I face it every day with people who are having difficulties dealing with an agency unable to properly function without open offices, far more than a handful of DIB claims. Chill out, your not all that.

Anonymous said...

The just posted a TON of HR jobs on USAjobs. Likely means mass hiring coming soon.

Anonymous said...

anon@9:12am,

Yeah, they'll go up. And, they'll go right back down again within a year as a lot of the new hires realize just what brand of insanity they've gotten themselves involved with....

Anonymous said...

it was bad enough for the worst jobs at SSA (CRs/CSs in the field for Operations; anyone in a PSC; staff at OHO; etc.); now, you have to onboard and get up to speed fully virtually with SSA's antiquated systems and lackluster IT (this is much more owing to incompetents high up and not the folks on the ground, though more than other agencies I've seen so many SSA IT employees are in terribly low-grade, ineffective positions).

And you have to do the recently-scaled-down (way too short) cruddy training fully virtually.

I wonder if even 1 out of 10 of these new hires will ever stick around long enough and have the ability/conditions to learn such that they come remotely close to replacing the institutional knowledge of one of the lifers retiring in droves these last few years. I doubt it.

Anonymous said...


I've worked at SSA for 40 years. Before being hired in 1981 I had to have a BA degree plus pass the PACE test with a high score. The PACE test was somewhat similar to the GRE and LSAT tests, although not quite as difficult the PACE tested a person's ability to read and draw logical conclusions.

This is what SSA really needs to go back to. Testing before hiring. So many SSA employees now simply lack the ability to work complex cases, without making errors. They have been put into positions that they cannot handle.

Anonymous said...

Virtually everyone hired now is a vet or speaks Spanish. Some are pretty good. Many aren't. Worked for SSA since 80s and the only ones I have seen fired were recent hires vets. Wonderful people but lousy as CS. Mgmt pressures Cates to make these lousy hires work out but you can only make a pig run so fast and it will never be a racehorse.