The numbers look even worse among the government's most skilled and experienced managers. Federal agencies have begun an aggressive campaign to recruit new employees and offer bonuses to select managers they want to retain. For the first time last year, the government began a program to help valued employees pay off their student loans as a way to entice and keep younger workers. In the effort to attract talent, government has always had difficulty competing against better-paying private companies. But recent statistics suggest that the gap has grown.
Studies show that fewer and fewer college graduates are choosing to enter government service.
At the prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, about three of every four graduates in 1980 went to work for federal, state or local governments. Today, that figure is only one in three. A government study found that directors at VA medical centers make some 33 percent to 70 percent less than administrators at other public and private hospitals. The IRS often finds it difficult to entice talented college graduates to government service and away from the lure of the big five accounting firms. Amid the white-hot economy of the 1990s, it was a common problem for many agencies.