Federal Recruiting:
Comparison of Applicants Who Accepted or Declined Federal Job Offers
GGD-92-61BR: Published: Mar 20, 1992. Publicly Released: Mar 20, 1992.
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GAO provided information on the results of its survey of applicants who accepted or declined federal job offers for entry-level professional and administrative positions, focusing on: (1) why applicants accepted or declined the job offers; and (2) the applicant pool's characteristics, including differences between those who accepted positions and those who declined.
GAO found that: (1) at least two-thirds of the 94 job decliners reported that low salaries or the high cost of living in the job location caused them to lose interest in federal employment; (2) most job decliners who were in permanent jobs or self-employed reported that they would have suffered pay cuts if they had taken federal jobs; (3) over three-fourths of the 52 acceptors reported that they selected federal employment based on career advancement opportunities or a chance to apply their education and skills, and the remaining acceptors reported salary or job location as the basis for acceptance; (4) unlike the decliners, most of the 19 acceptors who were self-employed or in permanent jobs reported that they received pay increases when they joined the government; (5) compared to the decliners, a larger proportion of acceptors were unemployed at the time they were offered a federal job; (6) fewer than one-fourth of acceptors and decliners reported that they were enrolled as students when they applied for federal employment; (7) acceptors tended to be slightly younger than decliners, although most individuals in each group were at least 27 years old; and (8) although there was little difference in acceptors' and decliners' reported education levels and grade point averages (GPA), over 80 percent of each group had at least a bachelors degree and about two-thirds of the individuals in each group reported that they had at least a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale.
Jan 12, 2021
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DHS Employee Morale:
Some Improvements Made, but Additional Actions Needed to Strengthen Employee EngagementGAO-21-204: Published: Jan 12, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 12, 2021.
Sep 16, 2020
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Senior Executive Service:
Opportunities for Selected Agencies to Improve Their Career Reassignment ProcessesGAO-20-559: Published: Sep 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 16, 2020.
Feb 25, 2020
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State Department:
Additional Steps Are Needed to Identify Potential Barriers to DiversityGAO-20-237: Published: Jan 27, 2020. Publicly Released: Feb 25, 2020.
Dec 30, 2019
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Office of Congressional Workplace Rights:
Using Key Management Practices Would Help to Fully Implement Statutory RequirementsGAO-20-222: Published: Dec 30, 2019. Publicly Released: Dec 30, 2019.
Oct 10, 2019
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Department of Veterans Affairs:
Improved Succession Planning Would Help Address Long-Standing Workforce ProblemsGAO-20-15: Published: Oct 10, 2019. Publicly Released: Oct 10, 2019.
Oct 2, 2019
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Defense Workforce:
Steps Needed to Identify Acquisition Training Needs for Non-Acquisition Personnel [Reissued with revisions on Oct. 2, 2019.]GAO-19-556: Published: Sep 5, 2019. Publicly Released: Sep 5, 2019.
Sep 25, 2019
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Federal Workforce:
Talent Management Strategies to Help Agencies Better Compete in a Tight Labor MarketGAO-19-723T: Published: Sep 25, 2019. Publicly Released: Sep 25, 2019.
Sep 11, 2019
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USAID Reform:
Efforts Address Most Key Practices but Could Improve in Performance Assessment and Strategic Workforce PlanningGAO-19-609: Published: Sep 11, 2019. Publicly Released: Sep 11, 2019.
Aug 15, 2019
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Defense Acquisition Workforce:
DOD Increased Use of Human Capital Flexibilities but Could Improve MonitoringGAO-19-509: Published: Aug 15, 2019. Publicly Released: Aug 15, 2019.
Jul 30, 2019
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Human Capital:
Improving Federal Recruiting and Hiring EffortsGAO-19-696T: Published: Jul 30, 2019. Publicly Released: Jul 30, 2019.
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