The Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) has posted updated numbers
showing the headcount of employees at each
agency. Note that these numbers do not tell the whole story. They don't
account for part time employees nor for overtime. Overtime is a huge
part of the story at Social Security. A Full Time Equivalent (FTE)
report would cover that but we seldom see FTE reports. Here are Social Security's numbers
as of December with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:
- December, 2022 58,916
- September, 2022 57,754
- June, 2022 58,332
- March, 2022 59,257
- December, 2021 60,422
- September, 2021 59,808
- 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
- December 2016 63,364
- December 2015 65,518
- December 2014 65,430
- December 2013 61,957
- December 2012 64,538
- December 2010 70,270
- December 2009 67,486
- December 2008 63,733
23 comments:
They talked on calls about hiring 8700 folks this year. That seems to have stagnated. I suspect we maintain status quo if not digress further. Sad but the public should prepare for much further degradation as a good portion of what we have are new employees. This ship is on fire and sinking and the leaders are arguing over what song the band should play…..
Buckle up. In addition to fomenting further declines in morale and driving staff away, the agency is also moving key staff into field office details in a vain effort to stem the bleeding, apparently fully unaware that a too-short quilt will still be too short even if you cut four inches from the top and sew them to the bottom. Truly stellar leadership up in Baltimore….
On the upside, there are jobs abound at VA for everyone leaving SSA, with higher career ladders and true remote work status. You know SSA is truly and thoroughly f***ed when the most infamously inept agency in the entire federal government is outperforming it by virtually every metric.
Even if magically the SSA was authorized another 10,000 FTE's, the notion that in todays labor market they could actually find that number of employees is ludicrous. Clerical workers might be available if they're willing to basically take anyone with a High School education but if they needed 5,000 college graduates capable of filling the professional jobs in District Offices, they're dreaming. And it is those jobs that are needed most.
It would take years to rebuild the staff at Social Security let alone providing the necessary training for the Claims Representatives needed, let alone dealing with the retirement or just leaving of most of the experienced staff due to age and frustration of what a once proud organization has become.
I am curious if anyone has real suggestions to the problems. I agree it sucks to be in operations right now. I know of a FO that had both of their OSs quit this week. And it’s true, the VA and the CDC have gobbled up SSA support staff like crazy in the last 2 years.
But what is the solution. Every proposed one is also shot down by just as many people on here. Genuinely curious.
SSA uses "workyears" which includes FTEs, overtime, and lump sum leave
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/supplement/2022/2f1-2f3.html#table2.f3
Table 3.8 in the FY 2024 and FY 2023 funding requests shows workyears (add "Total SSA Workyears" and "OIG" to get similar totals to those in Table 2.F3:
https://www.ssa.gov/budget/assets/materials/2024/2024LAE.pdf#page=40
https://www.ssa.gov/budget/assets/materials/2023/2023LAE.pdf#page=41
Repeal the 13th Amendment. You’re not going to get SSA staffed adequately without forcing people to work there. Maybe a massive recession would help.
Do you have numbers going back to the 70's? That would be an eyeopener.
I’d recommend they listen to their staff to learn what the problems are and learn what needs to be to improve them, rather than continue assuming they know what’s best or continuing to do what randos on the internet/news or ignorant Congresspeople think is going to be best.
I'd like to see the staffing numbers for 1968 vs now. Back then the parking lots at SSA HQ and PC7 in Baltimore were completely full, and SSA workers cars parked on Security Blvd in Woodlawn for 1/2 mile too. There are a fraction of those numbers employed now.
The furthest back I could find was 1995, when there were 62,502 staff. And for perspective, the us population has increased by over 30% since 1990, according to the census, while the percentage of older Americans has increased by an even larger proportion. The situation is quite dire. Yet Congress doesn’t think the agency needs more staff, and the idiots in Baltimore are too worried about looking weak and planning for impossibly improbable possible future events to take actual steps that would improve staff retention.
1999 SSAB report on "How the Social Security Administration Can Improve Its Service To The Public" Table 1, p. 22, SSA On-Duty Employment Fiscal Years 1975 - 1998
https://www.ssab.gov/research/how-the-social-security-administration-can-improve-its-service-to-the-public/
Silly rabbit, didn't you know computers and systems is going to fix everything? Why treat your people well when you're thinking you won't need them for the long term.
6:52 civillian contractors.
"Maybe a massive recession would help."
It's how they got the last batch of people who are actually capable of performing the various job requirements. From 2009 to 2011, the government was one of the few places hiring in numbers to support law school classes and other graduate programs. Now the job market is the opposite, so who in their right mind would take a job where you're over-worked, under-appreciated, and underpaid compared to a private sector job?
9:28 There were 53,000 SSA employees in 1968. https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssa/lbjperson1.html
The reason the SSA HQ Baltimore parking lots were overflowing in 1968 HQ was that PC7 and SSA HQ used the same building, That was prior to the Dickinson (Later Security West) building opening in 1969, then the PC7 employees moved across the street to Dickinson.
200 million USA population in 1968 335 million today. That same increase applied to SSA worforce would mean 89,000 SSA employees today.
Many many many manual tasks performed in 1968 have been automated. I know that is kind of hard to understand, but we are talking the difference between typewriters and carbon paper to desktops here.
@144 Good point! But it seemed as in my 30+ years in a field office that when systems were added to make things quicker or more efficient, that there were other things added that took up most of the time that was saved by technology.
@11:31, that is a really valid point. I started with SSA during that recession. I had an MPA fresh out of grad school and was working at a nightclub as security for 10$ hr waiting for a call from anyone. I was hired with four other people in my office and every one had MPAs. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some great jobs with SSA, but the culture and satisfaction at the agency is gone. I’m very thankful to have gotten out of the field years ago. I don’t see how the agency can compete in the labor market. I’m thankful people are still joining the agency and carrying out it’s important work (everyone who posts here needs the agency to survive in some way) but I just hope it gets better so people will stay.
The SES class does not care. SSA will be unable to do administer the programs congress charged the agency to administer. The SES will continue to receive awards and kudos for failing and nothing will change.
Yeah, they couldn’t care less. I’m leaving for the VA as soon as they post another opening for attorneys, as are many of my colleagues. Sick of being treated like a lower-class peon and being told I have to live within two hours of an office I haven’t seen in year, while attorneys elsewhere in the agency are given full-remote status despite actually needing to make in-person appearances at times.
3:40 is it the system updates that made it more or was it the addition of more programs to the SSA system that it was never imagined to have?
Things added to SSA since 1968
SSI in 1974
DRCs in 1972
SSI for children 1975
Medicare Part D and the LIS
just a few little things added
And, even if the agency got 8700 new employees, what they aren't saying on a lot of those conference calls is that they are quietly projecting total employee attrition/losses this year of 4500-5000 employees. Hence, why they wanted to justify hiring that many in the first place.
So, even the 8700 hires were to materialize (which doesn't look like it is going to happen at this point), it would AT BEST leave the agency barely treading water given that it takes 3 years for an average employee to gain minimal competence and several more to be able to accomplish significant moderately complex work without supervision. Given the total failure that the agency's training abilities have become, I can see those timeframes stretching out in the future especially for claims specialists positions.
I personally don't expect the agency to hire even a fraction of that total number, and the ones they do hire to boot won't be anywhere near the cream of the crop (as those people have better things to do than wasting their time working for SSA, given the agency's current reputation).
Plus, I also expect employee losses may even be worse then they are expecting. The employees who know how to do complex things right are slowly becoming spread farther and farther between, and many of them are absolutely tired of being treated like dirt by jack-booted supervisors who on one hand want to put timers on interviews while at the same time not bothering to learn WHY the interviews take as long as they do. SSA's standard for supervisors presently stands as the abilityt to read numbers off a WAC list, something any 6th grader could do. Abilities demonstrated beyond that are unexpected bonuses to the agency that apparently aren't that common.
I shudder to think what the agency is going to look like in 5 years. My suspicion is that it will become a worst joke agency than the IRS is considered to be now.
Post a Comment