The USDA is already recruiting employees to replace Economic Research Service staff workers who will not relocate to Kansas City this summer, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday. Perdue, who previously proposed large cuts in the ERS budget and workforce, said the USDA is committed to offsetting the attrition caused by moving the agency out of Washington.
A survey by the union that represents ERS workers said that two of every three employees “are certain they will decline relocation.” Some 250 jobs would move to Kansas City and 76 would stay in Washington. The USDA says the first wave of employees, 50 people, will begin work in Kansas City by Aug. 1, with 100 following on Sept. 1 and the final 103 by Sept. 30. “The relocation crisis created by Secretary Perdue has resulted in catastrophic attrition,” said the American Federation of Government Employees.
“I hope the numbers are overblown,” said Perdue, when asked if the USDA was committed to filling the vacancies. “Yes, we will recruit. We are recruiting already for new positions there [Kansas City] for those that we know are definitely not going.”
The AFGE said, “Many of those remaining in D.C. also say they are seeking new employment because they are scheduled to be reassigned to a yet-to-be-identified new facility within the national capital region.” The attrition rate agency-wide could be 50 percent to 60 percent, said the union.