Government Jobs Attract Interest

Working for Uncle Sam is suddenly sexy. Throngs of applicants crowded a public sector job fair held this month in Washington, D.C. – three times as many as last year.

It was sponsored by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service (PPS), whose president, Max Stier, forecasts a need for 600,000 more federal workers over the next four years. While the job fair was targeted at young people, PPS also recognizes the need to find millions of highly skilled and experienced older workers who are approaching retirement age, or are already retired, from all sectors of the economy and is recruiting them via its FedExperience initative.

Stier told John Dimsdale of Marketplace that he believes people at the job fair were looking for more than just jobs, noting, “Government now is more real and important in the public’s mind than it’s been in at least a couple of generations. Whether it’s solving the financial crisis or the two wars or you name it, that makes people interested.”

President Obama’s call to community service may account for some of the enthusiasm. But the generous benefits accorded to government workers are also a factor. Some public employees can retire in their 50s and receive pensions at 80 to 90 percent of their pay, along with medical benefits.

USA Today noted in April, “Last year, government benefits rose three times more than those in the private sector: up 69 cents an hour for civil servants, 23 cents for private workers.”

One recent college graduate at the job fair, Melody Gilbert, mentioned both motivations. “There is absolutely new life breathed into Washington, and the atmosphere and people’s expectation of federal work is completely changing,” she told Dimsdale. She added that she was also attracted by the government benefits that would help pay off her student loans and the upward mobility created by baby boomer retirements.

Source: Encore Careers