Public employee unions — and Governor Hochul — are pressuring state lawmakers to increase hiring at state agencies because, they say, more than a quarter of the state workforce is poised to retire — a figure more than double what state officials are actually forecasting.
A briefing book that accompanied Hochul’s January State of the State presentation warned “more than 26 percent of the state workforce” is “eligible to retire within the next five years,” and that New York faced a “shortage” of workers. The claim was repeated as part of Hochul’s executive budget proposal a few weeks later.
The governor didn’t provide a source for the 26-percent figure, or explain what “eligible” meant, but that didn’t stop state government’s two largest unions — both of which have shrunk to their lowest membership levels in decades — from running with it.
“The public workforce is facing a labor shortage, and this problem will become more severe because 25 percent of state employees are eligible to retire in the next five years,” the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) wrote to its members earlier this month.
The Public Employees Federation hyped it even further, upgrading “eligible” to “ready.”
“We have seen — and in the governor’s budget she talks about — we’re down 12,500 workers, with 26 percent more ready to retire,” Public Employees Federation Vice President Randi DiAntonio told lawmakers at a March 1 hearing. “Those folks ready to retire are gonna go.”
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