You do realize that contractors are fired at will and don't get a pension?
That reminds me, did you notice Texas didn't have a recession? . On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 10:03 PM, Larry Lyons <[email protected]> wrote: > > What you also seem to forget is that the federal workforce has been steadily > decreasing. According to the Dept. Of Labor Statistics, and the Office of > Management and Budget, currently its at it's lowest proportion of the > population since before President Eisenhower. According to the same sources > over 15,000 were fired last year for cause. > > But the one area in the Feds that is really growing is Federal contractors. > According to the DOL, there are over 7.5 million federal contractors. There > are BTW less than 3 million federal employees. Again the DOL states that the > average pay for these contractors is considerably higher than Federal > employees. The differences are even created when you look at the costs of the > individual employee, again it costs taxpayers more for the average contractor > than the average federal employee. > >>That definitely is a piece of picture. The other side of it, however, >>is that the Federal government tends to have very specialized >>employees who are not easily replaceable. You can't just go down to a >>work center or post an ad on Craigslist and pick up a qualified air >>traffic controller tomorrow. Look at the thousands of people who are >>being laid off from NASA right now due to the demise of the space >>shuttle program. They really don't have comparable jobs anywhere else >>in the country. Probably not anywhere else in the world, really. >>Furthermore, the specialized jobs that a lot of the federal workforce >>does isn't really tied to economic cycles. The CDC is doing CDC stuff >>regardless of whether we are in a recession or in a boom time. >> >>So the low attrition is a combination of specialization, different >>funding patterns and a rules structure designed to make sure that >>people, once trained, stay in those roles and aren't easily tossed out >>due to political pressure, etc. I think that a lot of federal agencies >>have taken it too far and that, as you noted, there is an imperative >>to get incompetent people out of those jobs, especially in vital >>services (like air traffic control). Fundamentally, however, I don't >>believe that it is the primary cause behind the statistics cited >>regarding attrition. >> >>Judah >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:340723 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
