Federal Employment: Federal Displaced Workers Can Be Helped by Expanding Existing Programs

GAO discussed the: (1) Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) and the Department of Defense's (DOD) federal job placement programs for displaced federal workers; and (2) Department of Labor's retraining and readjustment assistance. GAO noted that: (1) in fiscal year 1990, neither DOD nor OPM placed a high proportion of registrants in new jobs; (2) linking and expanding existing federal job opportunities and job seeker databases would provide displaced workers with a more comprehensive listing of available federal job openings and employers with a more comprehensive listing of displaced employees seeking work; (3) expanding and matching the databases would cost about $2.2 million; (4) since states interpret eligible dislocated workers differently, displaced workers face significantly different eligibility standards for federally funded job retraining; and (5) Labor is attempting to resolve differing eligibility interpretations to minimize the adverse impact of base closures on civilian employees.