The federal government paid federal employees more than a quarter-billion dollars in recruitment, retention and relocation incentives in 2008 — a 37 percent increase over the previous year.

Agencies paid 39,511 incentives worth nearly $285 million to employees in calendar year 2008, an average of more than $7,200 per award, according to OPM's report on 2008 incentives, released March 5. In 2007, the government paid 32,484 incentives worth almost $208 million to employees, an average of $6,400.

Last month, OPM Director John Berry told agency leaders he was concerned about the growth in incentive payments, and said he wants the government to do a better job monitoring their use. While unemployment nationwide remains near 10 percent and the private-sector job market is still sluggish, the government may not have to pay so many incentives to attract and retain talented workers, Berry said.

And a closer examination of some of the longer-term trends of various types of incentives shows even greater growth.

Relocation incentives paid to federal employees almost quadrupled between 2006 and 2008. The government paid out $43 million to 3,307 employees in calendar year 2008 — a 270 percent increase over the $11.6 million paid to 1,009 employees in 2006.

Recruitment and retention incentives also increased in 2008.

The Defense, Veterans Affairs, Justice and Agriculture departments made the most use of relocation incentives. Agriculture told OPM it offered incentives to convince employees to fill vacant positions in other states where traditional recruiting efforts failed. Agriculture also used incentives to get senior professionals to relocate, to attract employees to high-cost areas, and to get employees to move to areas that have poor weather or limited housing and medical care.

Defense used relocation incentives to convince employees to accept extended assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan, or other overseas locations where they do not receive locality payments.

VA used relocation incentives to help moving employees who were having difficulty selling their houses during the economic downturn that began in late 2008.

Recruitment incentives increased by 161 percent between 2006 and 2008, from $32.9 million to $86 million. And the number of recruitment incentives handed out nearly tripled during those years, from 3,952 to 11,396.

The amount of retention benefits handed out increased by 23 percent between 2007 and 2008, to $155.8 million. Due to a change in how retention incentives were administered in 2006, OPM could not compare statistics before 2007.

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