{"id":27910,"date":"2024-01-08T16:26:07","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T16:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/01\/08\/federal-retirement-processing-accelerates-slashing-backlog-by-a-third\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:57:09","slug":"federal-retirement-processing-accelerates-slashing-backlog-by-a-third","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/fedlife\/retirement\/2024\/01\/08\/federal-retirement-processing-accelerates-slashing-backlog-by-a-third\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal retirement processing accelerates, slashing backlog by a third"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Office of Personnel Management is gearing up for the annual rush of retirement applications from federal workers over the next two months in a strong position after reducing its processing backlog by 34% in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal employees filed nearly 89,000 retirement applications during the year, the bulk of which were submitted in January. Despite near-annual warnings of an impending retirement \u201cwave,\u201d that\u2019s significantly less than 103,000 employees who retired in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having fewer total claims to process may have helped OPM make progress on further reducing the number of pending cases. At the end of December, OPM was sitting on roughly 14,200 cases \u2014 the lowest number all year. The agency was able to process 19% more cases in December than November,<\/a> though it took slightly longer, on average, to do so, month over month.<\/p>\n\n\n\t