Federal Workforce Is Shrinking

It's official: the federal workforce is shrinking, but not by a lot. There were 11,600 fewer federal workers in April than a year earlier, which was about O.5 percent of the total workforce. But USA Today reported federal employment has fallen for seven straight months. It was the longest drop in more than a decade and marked an end to a hiring spree that began under President George W. Bush in 2007. Federal employment grew 13 percent from the time the recession began in 2007 until last year. Now, the Internal Revenue Service is among the fastest-shrinking agencies. It cut 6 percent of its workers last year though attrition. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also trimmed back.