The government is welcoming laid-off tech workers with open arms

It’s been a rough stretch for the tech industry, and the job market shows it: Over 1k tech companies have laid off 414k+ workers between 2022 and 2023.

But one employer is still actively hiring, and it’s not Tim Cook or Mark Zuckerberg — it’s Uncle Sam.

The US government is saying, “I want you,” to tech workers looking for their next gigs, per Wired:

• The US Department of Veterans Affairs has hired 1k+ workers into tech jobs over the last year, and increased its average salary by $18k to better compete with private sector salaries.
• The VA has also made its jobs more accessible, recruiting via LinkedIn Live events and advertising remote roles with hubs in popular tech cities like Seattle and Austin.
• A federal tech portal currently has 101 job listings, with some salaries ranging as high as ~$200k.

The federal government is also aiming to hire 22k tech workers into public sector jobs this fiscal year.

The government’s efforts…

… seem to be drumming up interest. In October, 3k+ people registered for a career event hosted by the Tech Talent Project, a nonprofit that helps the government recruit for tech jobs, with 1k more on a waitlist.

Plus, money is flowing into federal tech while Big Tech continues to trim jobs.

• President Biden signed a $1T infrastructure law in 2021 that included $1B in cybersecurity grants for state and local governments.

This could be good for everyone: Unemployed tech workers get jobs and the government gains access to a talent pool of highly skilled professionals.

It’s not without challenges

The government isn’t known for being the fastest, and that applies to the job hunt, too.

It could feel especially sluggish to workers used to the private sector’s more efficient hiring processes.

But the wait is worth it for some pretty sick job titles, like this listing for a director of flight projects at NASA.