SANDIA FEELS 511-PERSON RETIREMENT BULDGE

With workers scrambling to beat a Jan. 1 change in retirement benefits, Sandia National Laboratories saw 511 retirements in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, bringing to more than 900 the number of retirements in Fiscal Year 2011 and the first quarter of FY12. The retirement bulge, first reported by the Albuquerque Journal, is far larger than the normal 300 person per year retirement rate at Sandia. The retirements came as Sandia struggled to come to grip with a problem endemic across the Energy Department complex—soaring costs for defined benefit retirement plans and accompanying retiree health care costs. The health care changes—a reduction in the amount Sandia pays for retirees between their departure date and Medicare eligibility—were originally announced in 2009. Then in 2010, Sandia revealed that it faced a $2 billion unfunded pension liability.