A report by the Library of Congress has interesting tables showing Social Security’s staffing levels by month by state since the beginning of last year. I’d love to reproduce the table here but it’s just too big. It’s fascinating and horrifying. You’ll have to click on the link to see for yourself.
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This data ends in February, but the trend continues. Since February, about 180 more employees have retired or otherwise separated.
SSA seems to be attempting to hire temporary summer interns at the GS-4 level to plug in some holes.
The SSA workforce is far from perfect but they go to work everyday knowing that the agency is understaffed and that this administration would love to replace them as much as possible with AI. Survey’s show that public still wants to deal with in person service and that’s why appointments take months.
I am curious. During the time it takes for an appointment, is anything put on hold until the person gets to have face-to-face time with a representative without an appeal. I appreciate all those that come into work everyday and put up with the short staffing to work for the public.
I’m curious what happens when my doctor says I need cataract surgery and the next appointment is three months into the future? In the meantime, what am I supposed to do with my vision problem? Customer service is horrible in both the private and public sector. Why the double standard?
@4:50 - Apples and Oranges.
Unfortunately this should be a massive national story, but its not! The FO’s are drowning, so many have people left and more are leaving. Management’s expectations have only increased along with telling us how wonderful everything is. Management is literally driving us in the ground.
Unless you are in an FO you have ZERO clue how bad it really is.
That's one area where I agree. The private equitization of everything has made customer service horrific, including SSA. SSA has always been bad. But is it any better in the private sector? Just terrible.
Actually it’s the same. The public and private sector are pushing online transactions. Many companies have AI answering one’s phone calls. You need to go through hoops to get a human on the other line. The question now Is if the public will accept subpar customer service.
Even if they were to decide to hire the now at least 10,000 needed employees, given the pay level for entry Claims Specialists and Customer Service Reps at GS 5 is only $34,799 to $46,610 based on location. GS 7 hires are $43,106-$57,736 Yes, you can get a yearly promotion to GS9 or 11 if you can last that long but the story seems to be most hires leave in less than a year.
This is not terrible but not great either. The average starting salary in 2026 for a college graduate in liberal arts is $40,000 to $50,000. Teachers are estimated at $50-60,000 obviously depending on locality. For specialized fields in STEM graduates is estimated at around $75,000.
Considering the above, there is simply no way to fill the gap with enough new employees to really make a difference.
Disagree. There are thousands of college graduates living in the basement of their mothers home with no job. The entry level salary is low but there is always opportunity to move up the ladder at SSA. Hopefully, the staffing levels will change after the midterms.
Few with enough braincells to complete college would even consider working for the government for the foreseeable future, let alone at SSA for wages that now fall below the standard of poverty along most of both coasts. And the number who can do the job and would be willing to stick around anywhere near long enough to escape poverty via a promotion is vanishingly small. Probably time to just outsource the work to a call center in India. You’re all going to love suffering that level of service to maintain those tax cuts for billionaires.
The issue is the complexity of the job for the pay. SSA can hire people, but it cannot retain people.
It's a tough job. I used to be a CR in the field. It takes a minimum of two years before you feel like you are competent.
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