SSA Faces Shortage of IT Pros

The Social Security Administration will need to boost its recruitment, hiring, training and retention efforts of information technology specialists in order to offset a wave of IT retirements over the next six years, Federal Computer Week reports.

According to a new report from SSA's Office of Inspector General, about 42 percent of the agency's 3,700 IT specialists are expected to retire by 2016. The IG found that, while SSA has done a good job of filling IT specialist jobs, the agency must continue to beef up its efforts to recruit, hire, train and retain IT specialists, particularly as the level of retirements peaks.

I've written in the past about how retirements overall pose a unique challenge for SSA. As 78 million baby boomers near retirement, for example, the agency not only will have to provide benefit and pension services to this large retiree population, it also must address the retirement wave within its own workforce. There is little doubt that IT will play a major role in SSA's ability to process the large number of baby boomer retirements, and it will be interesting to see how the agency beefs up its recruiting, hiring and retention efforts and uses other human resources flexibilities to ensure it has enough IT specialists to support its critical mission.