U.S. Job Odds Spiraling: The Federal Diary
If you are trying to get a federal Job right now. the odds are 76 to 1 against youÛÓand getting longer every day.</br></br>In metropolitan Washington, where the federal-dominatod job market is relatively good and unemployment relatively low, the main government job center gets 3.6 telephone calls a minute. It gets 7,000 letters a month, and deals, with 14,000 individuals every 20 days who come in asking how they can join the 350,000 people here who already work for Uncle Sam.</br></br>During the first six months of this year 5,664,757 peopleÛÓthat is more than the total population of cither</br></br>Last year there were 63 applicants for every available job. Now it is a 76 to 1 ratio and officials expect it to increase every year.</br></br>Of the 5.6 million people who in-nuired about government jobs from January through June, about 760,000 went through the initial application process. More than 734.000 applied to take written tests for the jobs requiring them, and 403,142 actually took those tests. Of that number, only 31,-630 were selected.