Feds could add 50,000 new workers under Biden’s 2022 budget

President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget anticipates a more than 50,000 full-time-equivalent employee increase to the federal payrolls next year, as part of concerted efforts to attract young and expert workers to federal service.

The largest portion of that increase will go to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is anticipated to see a 19,100 employee increase over the number of employees on the books for 2021.

The Department of Labor is also expected to see a 13.5 percent increase in its workforce, with 2,100 more employees added under the new budget, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to see a 9.6 percent increase with 800 new employees.

The IRS is also slated to receive $13.5 billion under the proposed budget, which, according to the National Treasury Employees Union, would help pay for an additional 8,493 full-time employees, including a $417 million adjustment to improve tax enforcement programs .

“Rebuilding the IRS workforce after a decade of cuts is essential to making sure our tax code is enforced fully and fairly, and we will urge Congress to follow through on this proposal and help improve enforcement and customer service at the IRS,” NTEU National President Tony Reardon said in a statement.

The 2022 budget also reflects a ramping up of civilian personnel for the Space Force, with a planned nearly 1,000 full-time-equivalent employee increase across the operations and maintenance and the research and development portions of the agency.

The employment increases also reflect the Biden administration’s commitment to improved equality and labor management across the U.S., with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board each seeing a more than 13 percent increase in employees next year.

“Workers have cried out for more staffing so that agencies can fulfill their mission without resorting to enormous amounts of mandatory overtime, and President Biden has heard them,” American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

“AFGE is thankful that substantial staffing increases to multiple agencies were included in the president’s first budget. For far too long, our members have spoken out about the dangers of understaffing agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, Bureau of Prisons and Transportation Security Administration.”

Much of the push for increasing the labor force across the government is likely to come from programs that target recent-graduates and highly-skilled workers in areas like IT and cybersecurity.

“The Federal workforce continues to become older on average. Almost 30 percent (635,397) of employees are older than 55, while 8.1 percent (176,805) of employees are younger than 30. By comparison, in the private sector, 23 percent of the workforce is younger than 30. Every single agency has fewer employees younger than 30 today than they had in 2010,” the budget proposal’s analytical perspectives state.

“The number of paid internships dropped from more than 60,000 in 2010 to about 4,000 in 2020, reducing the opportunity for many to serve.”

The Biden administration also points to restrictions placed on internship and hiring programs for recent graduates as one of the reasons why the percentage of workers under 30 in the federal government dropped significantly after 2010. That disparity between older and younger employees is especially pronounced in the IT workforce.

The Office of Personnel Management will be expected to release updates to the Pathways internship program, and federal agency leaders have been instructed to examine an expand internship opportunities at their agencies. Such improvements to the internship process were a key component of a recent National Commission on Military, National and Public Service report on how to better incentivize employees to choose public service.

Another element of that report, making it easier for feds who left public service to return at a higher grade based on new experience, will also be a part of upcoming OPM guidance.

The budget proposal also includes $6.5 billion to launch the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which will place additional federal focus on cancer and diseases like diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.

乔·拜登总统的 2022 财年预算预计，明年联邦政府的工资单上将增加 5 万多名全职员工，这是为吸引年轻专业人才加入联邦政府而采取的一系列措施的一部分。

其中最大一部分增长将流向退伍军人事务部，预计该部门 2021 年的员工人数将比账面上的员工人数增加 19,100 人。

根据新预算，劳工部预计员工人数将增长 13.5%，新增 2100 名员工；住房和城市发展部预计员工人数将增长 9.6%，新增 800 名员工。

根据拟议预算，美国国税局还将获得 135 亿美元的拨款。据全国财政雇员联盟称，这笔资金将有助于支付 8493 名全职员工的工资，其中包括 4.17 亿美元的调整，用于改进税务执法计划。

“经过十年的裁员，重建美国国税局的员工队伍对于确保我们的税法得到全面、公平的执行至关重要，我们将敦促国会落实这项提案，并帮助改善美国国税局的执法和客户服务，”全国税务雇员工会（NTEU）主席托尼·里尔顿在一份声明中表示。

2022 年的预算也反映出太空部队文职人员的增加，计划在太空部队的运营和维护以及研发部门增加近 1000 名全职员工。

就业增长也反映了拜登政府致力于改善美国各地的平等和劳工管理，平等就业机会委员会和国家劳工关系委员会明年的员工人数均将增长超过 13%。

“工人们一直呼吁增加人手，以便各机构能够在不诉诸大量强制加班的情况下完成其使命，拜登总统已经听到了他们的呼声，”美国政府雇员联合会全国主席埃弗雷特·凯利在一份声明中表示。

“美国政府雇员联合会（AFGE）感谢总统的首份预算案中包含了对多个机构大幅增加人员编制的条款。长期以来，我们的成员一直在呼吁关注退伍军人事务部、监狱管理局和运输安全管理局等机构人手不足的危险性。”

政府各部门增加劳动力的很大一部分动力可能来自针对应届毕业生和信息技术、网络安全等领域高技能工人的项目。

“联邦政府员工的平均年龄持续增长。近30%（635,397人）的员工年龄超过55岁，而8.1%（176,805人）的员工年龄在30岁以下。相比之下，私营部门23%的员工年龄在30岁以下。如今，每个机构30岁以下的员工人数都比2010年有所减少，”预算提案的分析观点指出。

“带薪实习岗位数量从 2010 年的 6 万多个减少到 2020 年的约 4000 个，减少了许多人的服务机会。”

拜登政府还指出，对应届毕业生实习和招聘计划的限制是导致联邦政府30岁以下员工比例在2010年后大幅下降的原因之一。这种年长员工和年轻员工之间的差距在IT从业人员中尤为明显。

人事管理局预计将发布“职业发展路径”（Pathways）实习项目的更新信息，联邦机构领导已被指示审查并扩大各自机构的实习机会。近期，国家军事、国家和公共服务委员会的一份报告指出，改进实习流程是该报告的关键组成部分，旨在更好地激励员工选择公共服务。

该报告的另一项内容，即让离开公共服务的联邦雇员更容易凭借新的经验以更高的级别重返工作岗位，也将纳入即将出台的美国人事管理办公室（OPM）指导方针中。

该预算提案还包括拨款 65 亿美元，用于启动卫生高级研究计划署，这将使联邦政府更加关注癌症以及糖尿病和阿尔茨海默病等疾病。

Jessie Bur负责联邦政府的IT和管理工作。