Government Jobs' New Appeal Among College Grads

While the economy is causing some pain in this country, the silver lining may be the injection of even more young energy into government jobs.

A piece in the Washington Post examined the boom in opportunities for college grads to work in the federal government in the face of an economy that is shedding jobs like it's its.. job. Sorry. Bad pun.

Although the private sphere has shed nearly 1.2 million jobs since January, the federal government has added more than 20,000 new employees just in the past three months.

Those numbers have some of this year's approximately 1.5 million college seniors taking a fresh look at the prospects for a career in government.

"It's not your grandfather's federal service; there are opportunities for all students," said Katherine Stahl, director of American University's Career Center. "I don't think there's any major that isn't served by looking at the federal government."

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At a time when local and federal employees are cashing in on what is left of their retirement accounts, the trends make current college seniors the perfect, "moldable" candidates for federal jobs, Koncz said.

In that sense, college seniors and the federal government are, to some degree, mutually dependent, said Zach Golden, a senior at George Mason University. New graduates offer the aging federal government new skill sets, and the government offers graduates some much-needed job security amid a tumultuous labor market, he said.

"We grew up with technology," said Golden, who eventually hopes to work for the federal government. "Everyone in my generation grew up using e-mail and things like that, and we can bring this perspective to our jobs. Hopefully we can help things run a little bit more efficiently."

The fact that so much young blood will be entering the federal workforce excites me, but what's even better to think about is Golden's point. With Obama's progressive energy in office, the new college grads' technological skills can help move the government forward and improve efficiency.

We still need to be vigilant of what non-college grads will do with this economy, but this is still encouraging.