The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently updated federal employment numbers on FedScope revealing the Social Security Administration (SSA) continues to lose employees. In the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2013, the Agency lost another 334 employees, bringing their staffing level to 62,543, down 11 percent from Dec. 31, 2010 when the Agency had 70,270 employees. The number of administrative law judges (ALJ) also declined for the third consecutive quarter and is now down over five percent from its high on Jan. 1, 2013.
These staffing losses come despite historically high numbers of applications and beneficiaries. Reduced staffing levels continue to negatively impact customer service and processing times throughout the application and appeals process.
Note: From 1998-2009, employment data was only made available annually, at the conclusion of the fiscal year cycle ending in September. Since 2009, the data has been made available quarterly.
