Federal Employees: OPM Data Do Not Identify if Temporary Employees Work for Extended Periods

In the early 1990s, concerns arose that federal agencies were retaining employees in an ongoing series of temporary appointments without benefits or tenure. For fiscal years 1991 through 2000, 10 agencies accounted for 90 percent of all temporary limited employees hired governmentwide. During this period, the number of temporary limited employees hired governmentwide declined by 47 percent--from 282,135 in fiscal year 1991 to 150,395 in fiscal year 2000. Most temporary limited employees were full-time hires in white-collar jobs who received some benefits, including annual pay adjustments and premium pay. A survey done at the 10 agencies indicated that seasonal work was the primary reason for using such employees, followed by peak workloads. The office automation clerical and assistance series was the most often reported occupational series for fiscal year 2000. Recent studies suggest that federal agencies and private sector firms use temporary employees for similar reasons--often staffing flexibility. Because temporary limited employees were serving for years under temporary appointments without the benefits afforded other long-term employees, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revised its regulations in 1994 to ensure that temporary employees were "used to meet truly short-term needs." The revised regulations created a two-year limit for individual temporary appointments in both the competitive and excepted service. OPM officials said that the Office of Merit Systems Oversight and Effectiveness, when assessing agencies' compliance with personnel laws and regulations, routinely included some individual temporary appointments in its periodic oversight reviews, but generally did not look at the work history of temporary limited employees in those appointments. OPM data show that many temporary limited employees hired in fiscal year 2000 had worked for the federal government for at least five years.