Mayor Bloomberg’s hopes of avoiding city-worker layoffs are being jeopardized by the record-low number of employees quitting or retiring, The Post has learned.
Because of the difficult economy, fewer employees are leaving the city’s workforce than in previous years, making it harder for Bloomberg to cut the budget by simply not replacing retired workers.
The city’s uniformed workers are on pace for a record-low attrition rate this year — 4.2 percent, according to the city’s Office of Management and Budget.
The typical attrition rate is between 7 percent and 8 percent.
The civilian workforce in the city had a steady 7.2 percent attrition rate in fiscal years 2007 and 2008, but is down to 5.7 percent for the present year, which ends June 30.
Bloomberg, who already has forced his agencies to cut their fiscal-year 2010 budgets by 14.7 percent, recently lamented the lack of attrition.
“One of the problems we’ve had is that we’re trying to downsize by attrition, but people aren’t quitting,” he said on a recent radio address.
Bloomberg recently warned he’s prepared to cut up to 7,000 employees by July 1 unless the city can rein in pension and health-care costs.