EBSA Opens Benefit Adviser Positions

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration opened a nationwide hiring push for benefits advisers, even as the agency faces staffing losses and proposed budget cuts that would reduce its size.

The posting, which opened Thursday and closes May 21, seeks employees across such major cities as New York, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta and San Francisco. The advisers will focus on helping workers resolve disputes involving retirement benefits; protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996; and pension rights under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

The hiring announcement comes as most government agencies have experienced job cuts, including EBSA and the DOL. Budget reports over the past year show EBSA has lost more than 20% of its staff through retirements and resignations tied to broader federal workforce reduction efforts.

At the same time, the White House’s proposed fiscal 2027 budget would cut another $10 million from EBSA funding, reducing staffing levels to about 640 full-time employees from 687. Despite those reductions, EBSA states that it continues to handle a massive workload, including more than 222,000 ERISA plan participant inquiries and tens of thousands of complaints tied to the No Surprises Act of 2022, which protects privately insured patients from unexpected medical costs for certain kinds of care. 

The benefits adviser roles being filled reflect EBSA’s growing reliance on public-facing staff who can resolve disputes informally before cases escalate into enforcement actions, the posting stated. According to the job posting, the advisers will provide guidance to workers and employers, conduct fact-finding investigations, and identify cases involving potential fiduciary violations or criminal activity.

In a separate recent staffing move, the agency promoted attorney Justin Danhof, who joined the DOL last year, to policy head.