Vendors can swell and shrink the size of their work force overnight to accommodate the ebb and flow of business. Private-sector IT employees change jobs the way feds change clothes. Contractors are not constrained by rigid funding. Unlike feds, they can move money among training, hardware and staff accounts as necessary. Contractor flexibility has made privatization the hot trend of the late 1990s.
Companies run prisons, issue food stamps, collect highway tolls and manage public schools.
If you want a freshly minted computer scientist, your best bet is to get a contractor to hire one for you. Personnel freezes, buyouts and deteriorating federal benefits make it hard to recruit highly qualified new blood. The Clinton administration is proud of reducing federal employment to its lowest level in 30 years. Federal business is following the workers out the door. But there are some serious implications for replacing employees with contractors.