Gen Z Is Underrepresented in the Federal Government: Report

• Gen Z employees are underrepresented in the federal government, according to a new report.
• The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service analyzed federal retention trends centering on Gen X and Gen Z. 
• In 2021, the turnover rate for Gen Z was notably higher than the government-wide rate.

Generation Z — the newest generation to enter the labor market — is notably underrepresented in the federal government. 

That’s according to a new report released Monday by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit that analyzed staff retention trends in the federal government centering on Gen X — born between the mid-1960s and the earliest part of the 1980s — and Gen Z. Insider obtained an early copy of the report.

In 2021, Gen Z — generally regarded people born during a year from 1997 to 2012 — composed nearly 10% of the US labor force, but less than 2% of the federal workforce. That same year, Gen X made up less than 32% of the labor force, but over 40% of the federal workforce.

The average turnover rate for Gen Z in the federal government — more than 12% — was also significantly higher than the federal government-wide rate at around 6%. 

“The federal government has long struggled to recruit younger generations, and this trend has continued with Gen Z,” the report read. “A high turnover rate for Gen Z employees has exacerbated this trend.” 

And this isn’t a new pattern, according to the report.

After 2008, the annual Gen X turnover rate decreased, dropping to about 3% from a previous high of about 6%. But the annual Gen Z turnover rate has been over 10% since 2005.

This suggests that Gen Z’s attrition rate is not a generational anomaly, Paul M. Pietsch, senior manager of research and analysis at the Partnership for Public Service, told Insider. 

…