Help Wanted in Public Service

A slow fuse is burning under the federal government that threatens to derail the Obama administration's ambitious plans for economic recovery, healthcare reform, financial regulation, and much else. That problem is the looming crisis in government staffing. Nearly half of all federal employees are on the verge of retirement - including 90 percent of the managers who run the biggest programs. Meanwhile, decades of neglect have left the rest of the government workforce chronically weak, poorly trained, understaffed, and facing an acute skills shortage.