Here is a piece which presents the senate staffs with the 15 highest and lowest turnover in 2017. Given the recent publicity that Amy Klobuchar has received about her temper and high staff turnover, one would have expected her to appear among the highest staff turnover staffs. Yet she doesn't appear on the list, either among the highest or the lowest.
The fact that this piece was written before all of this began gives it added credibility for me. Frankly, this publicity strikes me as the kind of thing that Republicans love to do to Democratic candidates for the presidency that they want to smear. The article says that this group has begun a project based on 15 years of data. I looked for it on their web site but didn't see it. I hope they publish it soon.
Which Senate offices had the highest staff turnover in 2017?
by Casey Burgat April 5, 2018
How do the staff turnover data for Senators compare to those of their House colleagues? This week, Senate offices are placed under the 2017 turnover microscope and reveal some interesting findings.
Relying on disbursement data submitted to the Secretary of the Senate, cleaned and verified by LegiStorm, a new LegBranch.com analysis reveals which senators led offices with the highest and lowest staff turnover rates in 2017. This snapshot analysis is part of a larger (forthcoming) project on Hill staff turnover that includes over 15 years of data.
What do the data show?
Turnover rates used in this analysis were constructed by dividing the number of staff that left a particular office (either voluntarily or involuntarily) by the total number of staff the office employed during the year. The median level of staff turnover in Senate offices for 2017 was 16.7 percent. Senators who left Congress during 2017, and thus experienced 100 percent staff turnover, were not included in the analysis. Senators who did not serve more than six months in the chamber were also excluded.
The chart above shows the senators with the lowest and highest levels of staff turnover in 2017. Sens. Murphy, Duckworth, Graham, and Young led the most stable Senate office with only two aides departing each of their offices during 2017. Sen. Bennet’s (D-CO) office experienced the highest level of staff turnover with 33.3 percent of his aides departing in a single year. Twenty-nine senators had turnover rates of 20 percent or more in 2017, while 41 senators led offices that lost less than 15 percent of their staffers.
Variations in the data by party and member gender
Eleven of the 15 (73 percent) most stable Senate offices are held by Democrats (this includes Independent Senators Bernie Sanders). On the other end of the turnover spectrum, 11 of the 15 offices (73 percent) with the highest staff turnover are Republican.
Of course, some of this turnover can likely be attributed to the Trump administration hiring veteran Republican staff off the Hill to help fill White House and federal agency positions. But, as revolving door research suggests, higher turnover in Republican offices could also be due to majority-party staff cashing in on their connections and moving to positions with businesses and other special interest organizations.
Women senators lead both high and low turnover offices. Females represent 22 percent of Senate lawmakers — four of the 15 senators (27 percent) with the highest turnover are women while three of the 15 (20 percent) most stable offices are led by women. Sen. Susan Collins’s (R-ME) office had the highest turnover rate among female senators with 27 percent of her aides turning over in 2017. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) led the most stable office among female senators with a 5.2 percent turnover rate.
continues at legbranch.org |
