Federal Daily - August 31, 2010

Earlier Retirements Tailing Off

If the careers of older feds track what’s happening in the overall U.S. workforce, the predicted wave of agency retirements could be less than expected.

According to recently released report by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, the proportion of older Americans working for pay has been growing in the past decade after years of decline. For example, 17 percent of men and 9 percent of women age 65 and over were in the labor force in 1995, but by 2009, that had increased to 22 percent of men and 13 percent of women, the study said.

The study found that workers with college degrees, men, and divorced urban women are more likely to work past traditional retirement age, and that women with college degrees have shown the most rapid increase in working at older ages—22 percent were working in 2009, up from 14 percent in 1995.

The study noted that a lot of these older workers work on a part-time basis, but nearly half of working men and more than one-third of working women 65 and over work full-time, year-round.

It’s not clear whether this trend is temporary, or a reversal of the decades-long decline in work at older ages. Labor force participation changed significantly in latter part of 20th Century. The participation rates of men age 70 and over fell from 21 percent in 1963 to 11 percent in 1990. The rate for women age 70 and older decreased from 5.9 percent in 1963 to 4.7 percent in 1990, the report said.

To see more, go to: www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/publications/IB_Shattuck
_Older_Workers.pdf.

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Military and Overseas Voters Getting Increased Access

Military and overseas voters are getting increased access to absentee ballots this election cycle, DoD announced last week.

After years of hearing that overseas voters had trouble casting their ballots, Congress passed the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, which requires states to send absentee ballots to no later than 45-days before an election for federal office, beginning with the Nov. 2 election.

Of the 11 states or territories which applied for waivers from the 45-day ballot transmission requirement, six were denied: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. Another five were granted waivers (Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Washington) after they made assurances that they had in place comprehensive plans to get the ballots overseas, said Bob Carey, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program.

“In each case, we determined that the combination of measures [the states] presented provide military and overseas voters sufficient time to receive, mark and return their ballots so they can be counted,” Carey said.

FVAP also launched new online products that make completing voting forms easier by developing electronic alternatives for voters to request, receive or return their ballots, he said.

Servicemembers can fill out their registration to vote and absentee ballot applications using FVAP’s online tool. If they do not receive their ballot in time, they may use the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot, for which a full online tool is available.

To see more, go to: www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=13837.

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Fed Food Drive Campaign Extended Two Weeks

In an effort to meet 2010 donation goals, the Office of Personnel Management has extended for two weeks the giving deadline for the “Feds Feed Families” food drive campaign, OPM Director John Berry said in an Aug. 27 memo to agencies.

The campaign, which was to end this month, has collected 700,000 pounds of food—well short of the 1.2 million pounds that OPM had set as a goal for 2010. In an attempt to reach that goal, the deadline was extended to Sept. 14, Berry said in a memo to agency chief human capital officers. Last year, the campaign collected 1 million pounds of food.

“Families nationwide are in need,” Berry said. “Together, we can be proud that we spent our summer feeding hungry children.”

To see more, go to: www.chcoc.gov/transmittals/TransmittalDetails.aspx?TransmittalID=3117.

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