At a time when private employers are, at best, reluctant to hire information technology professionals, the federal government is facing an acute shortage of them.
Ira Hobbs, a member of the federal Chief Information Officers Council (www.cio.gov), said that the government is actively recruiting.
“We need good, sound, solid information technology professionals to help us develop the delivery of our programs to American citizens here and all around the world,” said Hobbs, who is also the CIO of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
According to a report prepared in 2001 by the National Academy of Public Administration, there were 59,577 IT workers at the federal level at the end of 2000. Seventy percent were over age 40, and 29 percent were over age 51. It’s estimated that half of the federal IT workforce will be eligible to retire by 2004.
