Getting, And Keeping, IT Pros In Government JobsGetting, And Keeping, IT Pros In Government Jobs

Information technology specialists are in demand by the U.S. government--and the sorry state of the commercial IT job market, along with renewed feelings of patriotism, are combining to make Uncle Sam an attractive employer. But will IT specialists want to remain in government once business picks up again?

Salaries that haven't been competitive with the private sector have long kept many IT workers away from government employment, especially at the height of the dot-com boom. But last January, just as many dot-coms were going bust, the federal government hiked salaries of computer scientists, engineers, and technicians from 7% to 33%, depending on their experience level. Those pay jumps equaled "several thousands of dollars" for most workers, says a spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management, the human-resources agency for federal workers.

Despite those gains, however, pay gaps still exist. An information Research survey conducted last spring (after the federal IT pay raises) revealed that the median base salary for government IT staffers was $56,000 compared with $60,000 for private sector IT staff. The gap for IT managers was even greater: Government IT managers earned a median base salary of $70,000, compared with $82,000 for private sector IT managers.

But since Sept. 11, the government is set on reforming compensation packages even further, and planning benefit packages that not only help recruit workers but retain them. "It is a top priority of [OPM] director Kay Cole James and President Bush to attract the best and the brightest talent for government work, including information technology," the OPM spokesman says. On the agenda are improvements in benefits such as health coverage, life insurance, retirement, and long-term care coverage, as well as better training programs to advance government IT workers to higher levels of responsibility.

The government is also revamping the application process to make hiring much quicker than the several months it can currently take to land a government job.

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