USA Today reported earlier this week that for some federal employees, death by natural causes is statistically a bigger threat to end their careers than being fired. According to the paper’s analysis on federal employment retention:
So could that actually be costing taxpayers?“Death — rather than poor performance, misconduct or layoffs — is the primary threat to job security at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Management and Budget and a dozen other federal operations.”
Last year, USA Today reported that the average federal salary was an eye-popping $81,258 (not including benefits). And now, during a time of 9.2% unemployment, USA today is also reporting that the 500,000 federal employees making over $100,000 a year enjoyed a 99.8% retention rate for their jobs in 2010.
The federal government fired 0.55% of its workers in the budget year that ended Sept. 30 — 11,668 employees in its 2.1 million workforce. Research shows that the private sector fires about 3% of workers annually for poor performance.If you want a snapshot comparison with the private sector, John Palguta, former research chief at the federal Merit Systems Protection Board which handles federal firing disputes, offers the following:
Federal agency spokesmen claim the low numbers of dismissed federal employees are the result of excellent personnel as well as intelligent hiring practices.
They may have a point, at least in comparison to some unionized state employees. In many major American cities, the ratio of public school teachers fired for performance reasons is about 1 in a 1000.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is tackling this problem of entrenched public employees at the state level, as seen in this video:
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