AGA Today
Looking for Quite a Few
Good Men and Women
By: Stephen Barr
The Washington Post
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; D04
Uncle Sam, the nation's largest employer, is gearing up for a hiring
binge.
Over the next two years, federal agencies expect to hire nearly 193,000
new workers in almost every occupational field, according to a report
from the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that urges
young Americans to consider careers in government.
More than 83,000 of the jobs are expected to be filled at Defense and
Homeland Security as part of the continuing effort to secure the nation
from terrorism.
Agencies also will be hiring in medicine and public health, accounting
and auditing, engineering, science, computers, program management and
administration.
"The most striking feature to me is the breadth of need," said Max Stier,
president of the partnership. "You aren't seeing three, four or five
agencies projecting hiring needs; it is across the board."
The hiring is being driven by the impending retirements of thousands of
federal employees and by the intensified homeland security efforts after
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the report said. Nearly one-third
of the 1.6 million full-time members of the federal workforce are
expected to retire or resign in the next five years, with large numbers
of baby boomers departing, to create staffing shortages.
The baby-boom retirements come at a time when the nation's labor pool is
growing at a slower pace than in previous decades. While immigrants will
fill a larger share of the nation's jobs, a significant number of them
will not be available for federal service because almost all government
jobs require citizenship.
Federal agencies "are not going to be fishing alone" in the national
labor pool, Stier said. "They are going to be facing competition from
the private sector for the best talent."
As
in recent years, the government will be recruiting from the ranks of
college graduates and workers who are seeking a mid-career change. More
than half of federal employees work in professional, management and
business-related occupations, compared with 29 percent in the private
sector, according to the report.
To
compile the hiring projections, the Partnership for Public Service
surveyed 34 federal agencies and used employment data collected by the
Office of Personnel Management and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
report summarizes hiring plans through September 2009 for what agencies
call "mission critical" jobs. It does not include data from intelligence
agencies such as the CIA.
According to the report, agencies intend to do much of their hiring in
security, protection, compliance and enforcement, hoping to fill 62,863
such positions. Occupations include criminal investigator, inspector,
police officer, prison guard, airport screener, customs and Border
Patrol officer, immigration agent and intelligence analyst.
The Department of Homeland Security plans to hire more than 15,000
Customs and Border Protection officers and Border Patrol agents and
22,000 airport screeners in the next three years. The department also is
trying to fill more than 100 vacant political and senior executive
slots.
Defense, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission plan to fill 3,670 intelligence analyst positions
and are looking for people with proficiency in certain foreign
languages.
In
medicine and public health, the government expects to bring aboard
35,350 new hires. According to the report, the Department of Veterans
Affairs plans to hire more than 28,000 employees through 2009 to staff
its network of hospitals.
Accountants, auditors, budget analysts and contracting specialists also
will be in demand, the report said. The Defense Department projects that
it will hire 6,841 contracting specialists, and the Internal Revenue
Service plans to hire 4,600 tax examiners.
Engineers of all types will be sought by the departments of Defense,
Transportation and Energy and NASA and the NRC. The Pentagon estimates
that it will hire 7,652 engineers.
The threat of bioterrorism is driving demand for scientists. The
Agriculture Department projects hiring 2,462 employees in biological
sciences.
Other agencies with big hiring plans include the Federal Aviation
Administration (more than 4,300 controllers), the Patent and Trademark
Office (more than 1,500 patent examiners) and the State Department
(nearly 2,000 to handle increased demand for passports and visas), the
report said.