Wanted: Several Hundred Thousand New Civilian Workers

-- The Social Security Administration plans to hire 3,200 workers to serve retiring boomers. That would take the agency's total to 68,300.

Not all agencies grow under the budget. Two would drop 800 workers each. The Agriculture Department would fall to 95,300 employees and the Small Business Administration would have 3,200 staffers.

If it all shakes out as Obama plans, he would be boss-in-chief to 2.1 million employees in 2010, up from two million this year.

You can find the budget's "Analytical Perspectives" at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Analytical_Perspectives.

Paper Wasters

A company that makes printers released a study yesterday that says federal government employees print too much.

The official-sounding "2009 Government Printing Report -- A Closer Look at Costs, Habits, Policies, and Opportunities for Savings," was released by Lexmark, a Lexington, Ky.-based maker of home and office printers. It says federal workers spend nearly $1.3 billion annually on printing. About $440.4 million -- more than $1 million every day -- of that is superfluous, according to the report.

Lexmark worked with O'Keeffe & Co., an Alexandria communications firm, to survey 380 government employees.

Other details from the report:

-- Each federal employee prints about 30 pages each workday in the office, but only 12 when working at home. That means "when in their agencies' offices, federal employees print without restraint," says the report.

-- Ninety-two percent said they do not need all of the documents they print.

-- Fifty-seven percent said they print documents because they require signatures.

The report recommends that agencies develop clear guidelines, enforceable printing standards and use employee identification cards or codes to monitor employee printing.

Lexmark, which acknowledges "a strong footprint in the federal market," says it released a study that could hurt its business because it wants to help agencies "maintain their bottom line and be fiscally responsible."

Staff writer Eric Yoder contributed to this column. Contact Joe Davidson at federaldiary@washpost.com.