Government advertises for nearly 2,600 new jobs since sequestration

By Brid­get John­son for pjmedia.com -

With Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get fact sheets in hand, Pres­i­dent Obama warned of dire cut­backs and con­se­quences should seques­tra­tion go into effect March 1.

The cuts hap­pened, White House tours have been halted, and the admin­is­tra­tion swears it’s not over­re­act­ing to the bare-bones bud­get directive.

But in the days since the ham­mer of seques­tra­tion fell, the fed­eral gov­ern­ment is hir­ing anew.

A search tonight of the USA Jobs fed­eral employ­ment web­site, fil­tered to posi­tions in the United States and posted over the past 10 days, yielded 2,596 results.

This includes 107 posi­tions at the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity, which has claimed cut­backs have resulted in every­thing from a more tax­ing secu­rity line at air­ports to the need to free ille­gal immi­grant detainees.

Jobs included trans­porta­tion secu­rity offi­cers in rural areas, a library tech­ni­cian in Bal­ti­more, a recre­ational boat­ing safety spe­cial­ist in Cleve­land, nat­ural haz­ards pro­gram spe­cial­ists in Den­ton, Texas, and var­i­ous pro­gram ana­lyst posi­tions in the D.C. area. Var­i­ous six-figure super­vi­sory jobs are also open.

One hun­dred and fif­teen jobs have been posted since seques­tra­tion began for the Agri­cul­ture Depart­ment, which warned of Amer­i­cans falling ill from tainted food due to short staffing should seques­tra­tion go into effect.

Jobs posted included soil tech­ni­cians, a recre­ation forestry tech­ni­cian in Sedona, Ariz., a dairy grader in Winns­boro, Texas, an archae­ol­o­gist in McCall, Idaho, and a social sci­ence analyst.

The high­est num­ber of job post­ings since seques­tra­tion went into effect is at the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs, with 909 new open­ings at the time of pub­li­ca­tion. The OMB painted a grim pic­ture of tens of thou­sands of home­less vets being returned to the streets due to the bud­get cuts.

As the OMB warned Indian tribes would lose nearly $130 mil­lion in fund­ing from the Inte­rior Depart­ment, 115 new jobs have been posted in the seques­tra­tion era includ­ing mul­ti­ple park guides to stock up for the sum­mer, a museum aide, plant tech­ni­cians, and more.

And while the White House warned of hun­dreds of fur­loughed fed­eral pros­e­cu­tors and a thou­sand fewer crim­i­nal cases being brought to court each year, the Jus­tice Depart­ment has 46 new job post­ings includ­ing a pub­lic affairs spe­cial­ist for the U.S. Attor­neys, a law librar­ian, a trial attor­ney, and a deputy chief for the civil rights division.

Editor’s note rant: There you have it, folks — your tax dol­lars at work! Don’t get mad and quit your job — your fed­eral gov­ern­ment is depend­ing on you!

Don’t worry — they made a sac­ri­fice, too. After all, they’ve stopped White House tours, sav­ing a whop­ping $18,000 a day.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Mar 12 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.