Monster Government Solutions

Despite the rising jobless rate across the country, the level of joblessness in the Washington, D.C. area has remained low over the past year. Now, hiring in the region is said to be picking up. In fact, according to an article in the Washington Post, some economists say they expect a net gain of up to 20,000 jobs for area for the 12-month period ended in April.

The growth will be in both the public and private sectors.  With the private sector’s renewed optimism regarding the economy, the competition for talent will increase. That is not necessarily a good thing for those on the public side, given the time-to-hire and other issues faced by government agencies struggling to fill jobs while meeting a myriad of compliance issues.

So, it is not surprising that the recent announcement by Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry that the federal government will be changing its hiring process was met with applause.  According to Berry, the current 40-step federal hiring process will be changed, and the knowledge, skills and abilities essay as an initial recruitment requirement of the federal government has been eliminated by President Obama.

Instead, applicants will be allowed to submit their resumes and cover letters, much like the current standard in the private sector. The President has given federal agencies until November 1 to update their processes and procedures.

These are great steps toward helping fill the hundreds of thousands of open positions within the federal government and will help cut down the current time-to-hire of up to 200 days. We’ll have an in-depth discussion about what the changes could mean with Ed Powell, our director of strategic business development, Monster Government Solutions.

Hopefully, we’ll see the Federal government become a fierce competitor with the private sector for the most talented in the job pool as our economy revs up.

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