How Agencies Can Address the Aging Workforce Gap

Let this remarkable fact sink in: Nearly one-third of federal employees are eligible for retirement, yet only 28 percent of the current workforce is under 40 years old. How can this possibly work out? One out of every three people sitting at a desk in every government office across the country will be gone when they decide to turn in their federal IDs and head into retirement, and the next wave of retirees won’t be far behind them. As a prime example, at the end of the 2017 fiscal year, 61 percent of NASA employees are eligible to retire in next 10 years. This means three out of every five seats at NASA will be empty in the next decade without a huge wave of reinforcements.