The Office of Personnel Management found that the age-gap ratio of federal information technology workers has slightly decreased over the past year, Nextgov reported Thursday. Data from the OPM shows that federal agencies hired around 4.4 IT experts over the age of 60 for every individual below 30 years old, as of September 2018. The results represent a drop from the 4.5 figure recorded in 2017 and does not cover the recent government shutdown.
While the federal IT age gap ratio increased over the 2010 to 2017 period, the number of tech personnel in their twenties dropped annually since 2010. However, there was a growth in the number of young IT personnel over the past two years partially due to more people in their twenties choosing to continue their government service.
The 2018 data marks the first time the federal IT age gap ratio has decreased in almost a decade.
