FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 7, 1997

CONTACT: Mary Ann Maloney (202) 606-1800 mamalone@opm.gov

Washington, D.C. -- Since March 30, 1994, when President Clinton signed the Workforce Restructuring Act, which authorized the use of monetary incentives to federal employees who volunteered to retire, resign, or take voluntary early retirement, the federal workforce has shrunk to a size it has not been in over 30 years. This finding is contained in a report to Congress from the Office of Personnel Management detailing buyout activity in Executive agencies.

Between January 1993 and September 1996, the federal workforce was reduced by nearly 255,000 employees. Of that number only 27,000 employees were involuntarily separated by reduction in force (RIF). The report notes that non-Defense agencies paid 36,035 buyouts under the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994. Combined with the 92,432 Defense buyouts which were authorized under separate legislation, the total number of executive buyouts paid between January 1993 and September 1996 was 128,467. OPMs latest figures, as of January 1997, show a reduction of 308,624 in the Executive branch agencies.

OPM Director Jim King said, The federal buyout law was the right management tool at the right time. The law allowed federal managers to more humanely deal with significant budget cuts that otherwise would have resulted in RIFs, which are costly, disruptive and damaging to the morale and productivity of the workforce.

The report notes that 51.4 percent of the employees who received buyouts during this period took regular retirement; 37 percent took early retirement; and 8.8 percent resigned. The average age of an employee taking a buyout was 56.9 years, approximately four years earlier than the average, non-buyout federal retirement. The average grade was GS 10.7 and the average amount of the incentive was $23,670.

While buyouts have permitted the federal government to trim its workforce, the diversity of the workforce remains intact. In FY 1995, females comprised 42.9 percent of the federal workforce, while minorities comprised 28.5 percent of the workforce. In FY 1994, before buyouts, 42.7 percent of the federal workforce was female, and 28.2 percent was made up of minorities.

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