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Are Department of Defense technical jobs becoming available?
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In April 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the Department of Defense would reduce its supporting contractor workforce by 13% replacing them with full-time government employees.
"Our goal is to hire as many as 13,000 new civil servants in 2010 to replace contractors and up to 30,000 new civil servants in place of contractors over the next five years," Gates said.
Considering, for example, the national average annual salary of an aerospace engineer with a bachelor’s degree with 8 years experience is $113,500. The government civilian equivalent position would most likely be a GS-12 or GS-13 with a salary range of $60,000 and $92,000.
So, the potential exists that the U.S. will have up to 30,000 mid-senior level defense contractors with technical backgrounds in the job market looking for a career change rather than take a 20% or more cut in pay. The Department of Defense contracting base will be depleted of technical experience over the next few years, but this action opens up a tremendous opportunity for new college graduates in technical disciplines to gain experience in government jobs.
We will also see a migration of highly skilled technical people looking for alternative avenues to make a living. During the great depression of 1929, America’s workforce migrated to parts of the United States where people could find work. Some of that migration was fueled by the fast growing automotive industry. The U.S. Government is considering offering more incentives to grow new technology businesses in the U.S. A May 2009 Frost & Sullivan study estimates that the solar power industry will grow 39.9% from 2005 to 2009. Today, people are different. They don’t want to uproot home and family to move unless absolutely necessary. Agile technology companies that can locate themselves in areas rich with defense contractors will find a ready workforce to tap into a grow commeasurably. The future of technology jobs in America is in transition and change can be stressful. But even in this economy where the job cuts haven’t yet stopped, there is reason to be optimistic with new markets emerging.
For those looking for those Department of Defense jobs, a search on the key word “technology” at the USA Jobs website resulted in over 1700 jobs posted in the last 30 days. Expect more jobs to emerge as the transition from contractor support to civilian positions continues.
