Not so surprising: The Post reports that the attrition rate for city employees for the 3rd quarter of this year "dropped to 7 percent. That compares to 8.7 percent for the same period last year, and 10.4 percent during that period in 2007 and 2006." Annual attrition is at a low of 5.1%, vs. 6.5% in 2008 and 6.7% in 2007. Mayor Bloomberg said it can cause problems, "When an agency has projected to meet their reduction goals and say, 'Well, we'll downsize by attrition.' What do you do if people don't retire? And that's exactly what has happened... You know, city employment is great for a lot of people. They like working here." more ›

A nice followup to that online database that allows you to look up the base salary of city employees: City employee pay and benefits have risen 63% in the past 8 years, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. Check out the chart above—you'll see that pay has gone up an average of 33%, while health insurance has gone up almost 100%. In private industry, between 2000 and 2008, salary + benefit compensation has only increased by 31% (salaries by 32%, other benefits by 40%). more ›