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Although USDA regularly collects veterinarian workforce data from its component agencies that employ veterinarians, it does not use this information to assess the sufficiency of the veterinarian workforce departmentwide.
Department officials told us that workforce assessment is the responsibility of the agencies. Because USDA delegates this responsibility, it appears to be unaware of the scope of the workforce problems facing its agencies. For example, in its fiscal year 2007 human capital management report, USDA reported that its agencies had met or surpassed certain veterinarian workforce goals but made no mention of the shortages that FSIS and ARS identified in their workforce reports. USDA officials agreed that the report did not capture this critical information and that future reports should address the shortages. One result of this lack of department-level involvement is that USDA agencies compete against one another for veterinarians instead of following a departmentwide strategy to balance the needs of the agencies. According to FSIS officials, APHIS is attracting veterinarians away from FSIS because the work at APHIS is more appealing, there are more opportunities for advancement, and the salaries are higher. Indeed, our analysis shows that veterinarians are more concentrated in lower grade levels at FSIS than at APHIS (see figure 1). Moreover, according to OPM's Central Personnel Data File, the mean annual salary for veterinarians at FSIS in 2007 was about $78,000, the lowest among the three key USDA agencies (see figure 2). According to an APHIS human resources official, the agency hired 75 veterinarians from FSIS between fiscal years 2003 and 2007, 17 percent of total new APHIS veterinarians hired.
Source: GAO analysis of agency survey responses.
Note: Federal agency grade levels represent ascending rates of basic pay, from GS-1 through GS-15, above which is the Senior Executive Service (SES).
Figure 1. Percentage of Veterinarian Grade Levels by Key USDA Agencies in Fiscal Year 2008
Source: GAO analysis of Central Personnel Data File data.
Note: Data in this figure contains locality pay.
Figure 2. Mean Veterinarian Salaries by Key USDA Agencies, Fiscal Years 2003-2007
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