Figure 6: Illustration of Principles for Evaluating Contribution to Strategic Results: SSA's Evaluation of Retirement-Related Strategies:
SSA is using the results of several studies of retirement trends in the agency to focus its voluntary retirement program. As we discussed in our February 2000 testimony, SSA conducted a study that predicted staff retirements and attrition by year from 1999 through 2020, as well as by major job position and agency component.[A] Its study showed that two factors would converge by the end of the decade: an expected increase in demand for services as baby boomers reach retirement age and the imminent retirement of a large part of the agency’s workforce. For example, the study projected that nearly 70 percent of managers would be eligible to retire by 2010, with the majority retiring during the peak years of 2007 through 2009. During these peak retirement years, SSA expected to lose about 3,000 employees per year, which would be more than double the average retirement rate from the previous decade. SSA officials believed that if the retirement wave were left to run its course unabated, the agency would be faced with an institutional knowledge gap coupled with an increased demand to recruit and train new employees that would be difficult and expensive to meet.
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