Fewer Federal Workers Retiring

The number of federal employees filing for retirement is falling. And so is the rate of retirement claims processed by the Office of Personnel Management. Retirement filings dropped in November for the fifth straight month, to about 5,700. That's about the same number of claims OPM processed. The month earlier it processed 11,000. Still, the agency says it met its goal of processing as many claims as it receives in a month. That keeps the backlog from growing. The drop in retirements stands in sharp contrast to earlier this year, when a surge of cases swamped the agency.