Despite concerns about sequestration by unions and boasts about belt-tightening from politicians, the civil service workforce of most federal agencies has grown over the last several years.
And since the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration went into effect early last year, the permanent federal workforce grew by 34,000, more than any year in recent memory.
Fourteen of 18 cabinet-level agencies had more permanent employees at the end of 2013 than they did at the end of 2009, according to Office of Personnel Management data, with overall growth of 10 percent over the four years.
The Department of Homeland Security has 27,000 more employees, Health and Human Services has 7,000 more, the Social Security Administration 4,000 more and Commerce 2,000 more.
If there was pressure to keep labor costs down, many obscure agencies also flew under the radar.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency doubled in size, the Consumer Product Safety Commission added 64 staffers. The National Credit Union Administration added 200 employees.
OPM, which is in charge of managing the federal workforce, itself added 700 employees, 266 of which came in the year of sequestration.
The data analyzed by the Washington Examiner looked at the number of rank-and-file, tenured civil servants.
The numbers stand in stark contrast to the sky-is-falling rhetoric from public employee unions, who warned that the federal workforce was being dismantled by congressional Republicans and that thousands of bureaucrats would be fired.
Sequestration took place in early 2013, and in an effort to fight the reduction in spending, the White House said they “threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs, and cut vital services.”
But those job losses don’t appear to have taken place. If agencies eliminated activities and programs instead of staff, it’s unclear what the employees are doing now that they have less work.
Many agencies helped make the cuts by stopping paying bonuses and by using conference calls instead of travel, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
“We’re trying like hell to stop it,” J. David Cox Sr., national president of American Federation of Government Employees, said as sequestration went into effect. He said Congress wanted the “blood” of federal employees.
The rate that new hires were made did slow considerably last year, at least from the stimulus-level highs that preceded it. The number of “conditional” employees — newly hired on a probationary period, and who are in a separate OPM category and not included in the above numbers — was 228,000 in 2009, then rose to 294,000 in 2011 and 245,000 in 2012 before falling to 184,000.
The slowing of new hires combined with retirements means that when “conditional” probationary employees are included, the federal workforce stands at 1.43 million: larger than in 2009 and 2010, but down slightly from its peak in 2011 and 2012.
But the number of post-probationary, permanent career employees has grown every year and now stands at a record high. That is significant because once federal workers hit that milestone, they are virtually untouchable.
In fact, only 615 feds have been laid off since 2010 in RIFs — reductions in force — not including 1,350 from the military.
The largest layoffs came at the Treasury Department, with 241. The Department of Housing and Urban Development didn’t lay off a single person, nor did other agencies such as the departments of transportation and labor.
The number of layoffs has declined every year since 2011, and is on pace for 60 this year.
In 2011, 281 non-defense personnel were laid off. The following year, that number fell to 139. In 2013, instead of rising because of the sequester, it was half of 2012’s level.
No senior executive position in a cabinet agency has been eliminated during the Obama presidency, the records show.
Even if the government lays off some of its highest-paid people, it may not save much money because of union-backed rules.
When high-level jobs are eliminated, those occupying the positions can take the jobs of more junior people, who are then let go instead. In this “bump and retreat” process, the more senior workers keep getting the pay of their former position, even though they have bumped to a job with less responsibility.
The OPM data also shows that employees aren’t likely to be fired for poor performance, either. Some agencies like HUD have fired almost no one for cause, despite being aware of serious misconduct. Instead, many bad employees remain on paid leave, sometimes for more than a year.
