Reign of Pain Update: Feds Rush the Exits

 From yesterday's Izvestia Washington Post: Wave of retirements hitting federal workforce

The number of executive branch employees retiring this fiscal year, which ends next month, is on track to be nearly twice the total who retired in 2009, according to government figures. And the rate looks certain to accelerate. In 2000, about 94,000 people age 60 and older worked for the government. Last year, the number was 262,000.

So one reason for the increase in retirements is simply the large demographic bulge in 'baby boomers', who are rapidly approaching the age at which retirement seems a better option than working.

The exits are helping to bring down the size of the federal payroll and — where funding is available — could afford agencies the chance to hire younger workers with crucial skills. The retirement of clerks could clear the way for experts in cybersecurity and information technology.

That would seem to be a positive to me.  Getting getting rid of Encouraging the higher paid people with older skills to retire, and replacing them with younger people with more recent training at lower pay scales seems win-win to me.  Of course, there will be some older workers with important skills, but short of an immortality potion, that will always be a problem.  As Charles De Gaul said "The graveyards are full of indispensable men."  The Frogs always were sexist bastards; it's women too.  And it looks like he plagiarized the quote.

Of course, the Washington Post being the Democratic Party's hometown paper, we are supposed to feel sorry for those leaving cushy jobs after accumulating a hefty pension at tax payers expense.

In interviews, recently retired senior executives from across the government offered a range of reasons for their decisions to leave. Most cited the pay freeze, the public’s negative opinion about federal workers and government spending cuts, which have resulted in furloughs, less overtime and a larger workload for many.

 Poor babies.