(Not Affiliated with the U.S. Postal Service)

Introduction to Government Employment
(Excerpted from The Book of U.S. Government Jobs: Where They Are, What's Available & How to Get One by Dennis V. Damp)

Uncle Sam employs over 2,980,000 workers and hires an averageof 350,000 new employees each year to replace workers thattransfer to other federal or private jobs, retire, or stop working forother reasons. Average annual salary of all full-time employeesexceeded $39,000 as of March 1994. The U.S. Government is the largest employer in the United States, hiring 2.5 percent of thenation's civilian work force. Job hunters will discover thatapproaching the federal government is now far less intimidating than it waslast year. Significant changes were implemented to streamline the hiring process, including:

Resumes and new simplified optional forms have replacedthe dreaded six-page SF-171 Federal Application. Federal registers, lists of rated job applicants, wereabolished. Job seekers can now apply direct to many agencies. Civil service tests were thrown out for 110 professionaland administrative occupations.

Uncle Sam entered the information superhighway on the Internet with state-of-the-art electronic job informationnetworks, touch screen computers, electronic bulletin boards, and 24-hour-a-day telephone job vacancy request lines.

Student employment was consolidated and streamlined into two programs: the "Student Temporary Employment Program" and the "Student Career Experience Program."

You need to know how to take advantage of the federal hiring system and recent changes to successfully land the job you want in the government.

Even when you consider the proposed cuts of the Clinton/Gore National Performance Review (NPR), tremendous jobopportunities remain for those who know how to tap this lucrative jobmarket. All government hiring is based on performance and qualifications regardless of your sex, race, color, creed, religion,disability, or national origin. The NPR announced plans to eliminate 252,000 (possibly more) federal employees by 1999. This number islarge by any standard; however, you must look at the overall federal employment picture. Fifty thousand positions on average willnot be filled each year for five years. Most of the positions willbe eliminated through attrition. Uncle Sam employs an average of 350,000 (non-Postal) new workers each year to replace employees that transfer to other jobs, retire, or stop working for otherreasons. In 1993, there were 469,885 new hires government-wide.Considerable job opportunities will remain for those willing to seek themout. The federal civilian workforce is projected to remain close to2,800,000 after downsizing.

Actually, more entry level positions may become available dueto the administration's strategy to reduce costs by eliminating alarge number of management positions and reducing the supervisor-to-employee ratio to 10 employees for everysupervisor. Currently, many agencies have supervisory ratios of 6 to 1 orless.

Over 350,000 federal employees were eligible for regular orearly retirement in 1994. Attractive early retirement incentiveshave enticed thousands to leave. When employees bid on retirementvacancies, entry level jobs are created.

The Book of U.S. Government Jobs walks you through the latest government-sponsored and private company job information networks including available electronic bulletin boards,self-service job information computers, the 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week telephone information systems, toll-free services, (TDD)telephone device for the deaf systems, computer-based referencesystems, and explores all facets of the federal job search. Readers will find up-to-date information on how the federal employment system works from an insider's perspective and howto locate job announcements through various methods andresources.

The book will guide you step by step through the federalemployment process, from filling out your first employment applicationto locating job resources and hiring agencies.

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