Report cards are out

President Donald Trump said last week that he would be “proud” to shut down the federal government—and when the boss has an attitude like that, it is no surprise that federal employees take somewhat less pride in laboring for their employer.

The nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service released its annual survey charting employee morale across government agencies last week, and after three years of post-recession progress, the numbers have dipped.

There’s no doubt that the administration’s anti-“deep state” rhetoric repels the national resource of smart, civic-minded Americans deciding where to take their skills. But there are steps government can take to guard against workforce depletion, notwithstanding a hostile president. That starts with bringing in younger workers; only 6 percent of federal employees are under age 30. Fresh technical talent is especially lacking: Nearly five times more IT employees are 60 or older than under the age of 30.

Plenty of young people might want to work in government—if government made it easier for them to get there. It takes an average of a discouraging 106 days for a prospective employee to move through the hiring process.

Of course, morale still matters. Recruitment only does so much if employees leave within their first two years, as occurs currently for almost half of federal workers. Congress should call hearings to probe underperforming agencies on how they might make changes. And perhaps Trump should consider changing his tune: These ratings are a report card for the executive branch, and the commander-in-chief should not like getting poor grades.