Number of the Day: Feds Need To Hire 270,000

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Get those resumés ready! Job-seekers, check out this info from Thursday’s Washington Post:

The federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for “mission-critical” jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age, according to the results of a government-wide survey being released Thursday.

The numbers also reflect the Obama administration’s intent to take on several enormous challenges, including the repair of the financial sector, fighting two wars, and addressing climate change.

One question, though, is can the federal government find the talent it needs for all these positions. And this job forecast doesn’t include any new government-run insurance plan—which may or may not come into being. But it does include 5,500 new hires for intelligence agencies.

By the way, the Animal House in Afghanistan episode illustrates the need for the feds  to reverse the trend of hiring contractors to do the government’s work. When there are big challenges at hand, sometimes you do need big government.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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