Baby boomers sought for 'encore' careers

Uncle Sam wants you.

And the latest college graduates. And those in the private sector who are near retirement.

Like the private sector, the federal government is preparing for an exodus of experienced employees as baby boomers begin to hit retirement age.

As a result, recruiters are updating hiring practices and offering incentives to new grads, as well as to experienced employees from the private sector looking for "encore” careers in public service.

"It's not just young people the government needs,” said Max Stier, president of the Washington-based Partnership for Public Service. "It needs entry-level, professional talent, but midcareer and experienced folks, as well. The recruiting challenges are quite similar to what the private sector faces.”

The nonprofit partnership works with the federal government to increase the exposure of public sector employment. Its most recent report found 193,000 jobs will need to be filled in the next two years, including more than 62,800 security and law enforcement jobs across the country.

Outside of the military and quasi-governmental agencies such as the U.S. Postal Service, the federal government has 1.85 million civilian employees, Stier said. They comprise more than 2,400 job categories, with 85 percent of them located outside Washington, D.C.

Oklahoma City has one of the top concentrations of federal employees in the country. The area is home to an alphabet soup of federal agencies, including Tinker Air Force Base, the Federal Aviation Administration's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, the Veterans Affairs health complex and the postal training center in Norman.

Together, they and other federal agencies employ more than 26,600 people in central Oklahoma. Counting military and law enforcement, federal employees total more than 79,000 statewide.

"They are a great thing for a community to have, because those jobs tend to be very stable, they pay well and have good benefits,” said Roy Williams, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.

The current federal work force is older than the overall labor pool, so the race for talent with the private sector is more acute. Almost one-third of the federal work force is expected to retire or resign in the next five years, according to the Partnership for Public Service.

"They're facing three problems,” Stier said: "An aging work force, new talent that doesn't look at government as the employer of first choice and new challenges such as the war on terror. You combine those three problems, and you've got a mess.”

Baby boomer retirements are a double-edged sword for the federal government. While it faces significant retirement challenges of its own, the federal government has a lot of opportunities for baby boomers who want to migrate from the private sector, Stier said.

"We are seeing a lot of folks at an age and a level of health where they anticipate working post-retirement,” he said. "Some surveys say up to 70 percent want to work post-retirement five or more years in an ‘encore' career. Most want to make a difference in their encore career, and there's no better place than the federal government.”

Despite the stereotypes of red tape and "nameless, faceless bureaucrats,” that sense of service is an important part of government employment, said LeAnn Jenkins, executive director of the Oklahoma Federal Executive Board in Oklahoma City. The board is an umbrella organization that improves coordination among federal agencies and programs.

"It's a popular whipping boy, and there's no doubt government employees end up taking it on the chin,” she said. "But people are still drawn to public service, because you can have the opportunity to make a difference. We have a wide, diverse career field in Oklahoma, everything from national cemetery directors and park rangers to the Bureau of Land Management.”

Stier said compensation and benefit packages are competitive and sometimes better than those in the private sector.

Meanwhile, applying for a federal job is no longer the bureaucratic hurdle it used to be, Jenkins said. The written civil service exam is a relic of the past. Information and jobs are posted online. Each agency is in charge of hiring and recruiting, although the Office of Personnel Management does much of the legwork.

"It's getting better,” Stier said. "It can still take too long and be too onerous, but there is a lot more information available on how to deal with it effectively.”