Statistics and Reality Checks

A Look at The Numbers Reveals No Easy Job Search

US Federal jobs are some of the most coveted jobs in the marketplace. They pay well. The benefits are excellent. And job security is assured. Lots of people know these things. And that is why it is very competitive in scoring a Federal job. A look at the numbers only makes the goal of getting a Federal job that more challenging.

The Federal workforce has been around 2 million people for a long time. Much of the hiring in the Federal sector recently has been the result of the Federal government outsourcing its work to contractors. It's unsure how long this will go on since the Obama Administration recently issued new, tighter regulations regarding Federal procurement practices.

Of the 2-million plus Federal workforce, not all jobs are up for grabs. About half the Federal workforce will retire over the next decade, so they will be doing a lot of replacement hiring, primarily for experienced senior positions.

So, let's put this all into perspective. The total US workforce based on US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics is about 130 to 140 million. So, the Federal work force equals about 1.5 percent of all documented jobs in the US. That's not much. Most people need to secure employmet outside of the Federal sector.

There are about 200,000 US service members that separate annually. Of that amount, about half aren't in the job seeking mode. The remaining 100,000 consider the US Federal Government as their first re-employment goal. Adding to the competition is the fact that there have been 6 million US workers laid off recently and the resume database of the Federal Job Board, USAjobs.com, has grown from 50,000 resumes in 2003 to about 10 million today. That's fast growth and shows a lot of people are interested in working for the government, despite all the Ayn Rand, libertarian, Republican, free-market, political talk you hear on the radio and tv, to the contrary.

On the upside, military veterans represent about 40 percent of the Federal workforce. That's encouraging for the job seeking veteran.

The bottomline is that is very competitive to get hired by the Federal government. Long job searches should be no surprize. If you are seeking a job in the Federal government, it would be wise to have a contingency plan.

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