Looking for Quite a Few Good Men and Women

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.