While the government must respond to the changing demands made by an ageing society (such as declining demand for primary education and increasing demand for health and elderly care services), government workers are themselves ageing. A very large proportion of the central government workforce will be retiring over a relatively short period of time. Maintaining the government’s capacity to deliver the same level and quality of services remains a complex issue. Significant staff departures create an opportunity to bring staff with new skills into government, downsize the workforce where needed, decrease staff costs (as entry-level salaries are lower) and re-allocate human resources across sectors. However, this can lead to loss of capacity and the need to postpone the retirement of some key staff. In addition, given the large share of government employment in many OECD member countries, these high replacement needs could risk pre-empting the private sector’s access to new labour market entrants.