Arizona has downsized its civil service and private sector employees (everyone from plumbers to garbage removal workers) by the hundreds this year, and experts say that the cuts will be back to haunt them as the baby-boom generation starts to retire and there are fewer experienced workers to come by. For example, Scottsdale downsized by 10% in 2009, losing 2,500 years of collective experience. The economic downturn has accelerated the loss of baby-boomer workers, about 35% of whom are within several years of retiring nationwide. Economically-forced buyouts have encouraged many more to retire earlier than expected. Finally, experts fear that the new generation will stray away from government careers in particular, because of declining trust in public governance.
See "Cities lose employees' expertise, talent in workforce downsizing", Lynh Bui & Lily Leung, The Arizona Republic, December 21, 2009