Government jobs are highly sought after positions particularly with our current economic climate. The number of positions in a wide variety of fields is steadily increasing while much of the private sector is seeing cutbacks. And as countless news articles are being written about the growing interest in government employment, we here at the Government Job Advice blog realized that few sources are lending themselves to answer the questions that many job seekers still have with regards to aquiring government work. Our solution is a series known as "Ask an Expert" where we find answers to your questions directly from those with years of experience in government employment. If you have a question you'd like answered, please submit it on our Contact page.

Are Government Support Jobs the same as Contracting Jobs?

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More than 270,000 mission critical jobs to be added by 2012

A study released September 3, 2009 by the Partnership for Public Service indicates that there will soon be a considerable increase in new government positions. The study attributes the coming increase to a variety of factors including stimulus spending, regular turnovers, and increased demand in expanding areas such as homeland security. It is estimated that the government will hire 273,000 new employees for positions deemed “mission critical” by the fall of 2012.

Medical jobs are at the top of the list with regards to number of positions needing to be filled at 54,000 over the next three years. Overall, however, there seem to be numerous openings across the board spanning from paralegals to biological science experts, border patrol agents to engineers, IT experts to accountants. This is good news for those in search of work as the unemployment rate has reached 9.7% which constitutes a 26 year high. Additional good news includes offers of loan repayment of up to $10,000 per year (totaling $60,000 in exchange for a minimum of three years of service), recruitment bonuses, and relocation incentives. And with 85% of federal positions located beyond Washington, D.C., there are numerous opportunities in diverse locations spanning the world.

The Partnership for Public Service is a Washington, D.C.- based group founded in 2001 by Samuel J. Heyman. According to the Partnership for Public Service website, the group was formed “in an effort to restore prestige to government service and reestablish the federal government as an attractive employer for America’s best and brightest...” They have been responsible for numerous studies regarding the federal government's workforce.

More information can be found by visiting the following sites:

http://www.ourpublicservice.org/OPS/about/history.shtml

http://www.ourpublicservice.org/OPS/pressroom/releases/release_090903_wtja.shtml

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm