5 Fallacies of Government?

No impending retirement disaster says OPM Director John Berry

October 21, 2009 - 7:59pm

John Berry
 Download mp3


By Emily Jarvis
Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio

Who better to ask about the potential of a retirement tsunami then the director of the Office of Personnel Management, John Berry.

"I worked on the Hill 25 years ago and people were referring to the impending, dooming, tsunami of retirements. It never happened. And quiet frankly we are not seeing it today. There is no data that we are seeing that shows that at this point in time federal employees are retiring at any greater rate than they have been historically," says Berry today when he joined Amy Morris and Chris Dorobek on the Daily Debrief.

Berry went as far to say that the retirement tsunami might actually be a tidal wave in the opposite direction.

"In fact it would be my expectation that with the economy being tight being tough with people's 401Ks taking a hit, people are going to be staying and working longer. I think many people have pushed that idea of an ideal retirement date a little further out," he says. "Bottom line we're not seeing anything right now in the data that would show us this is a problem. Obviously if it starts to show up we will be ready for it."

(Copyright 2009 by FederalNewsRadio.com and the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Home | About Us | Privacy Statement | Terms of Use | Copyright Infringement | EEO Public File Report | Bonneville International
AP material Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.