There's no question that the demand for college students and recent graduates is hotter now than it has been since 2000, but most of the attention has been focused on the private sector. What we all need to remember is that much of the demand is coming from the public sector, particularly areas related to homeland security. These areas include federal and state jobs with the military, customs enforcement, disaster preparation and disease prevention, as well as employment to support federal, state and local security efforts. The demand for employees with security clearances -- both in the government and the private sector -- may be at an all time high. College graduates with specialties in computer science, foreign language and math are particularly desirable in high-tech homeland security fields.

Because of the wars that we're fighting, the government right now has an astronomical need for college grads who have muscle in their arms and legs to go overseas and muscles between their ears to do intelligence work domestically. The federal government expects to hire 37,215 workers in coming years in the job category "security, enforcement and compliance assistance," according to a February 2005 federal report. That includes criminal investigators, airport screeners, border patrol agents and intelligence officers. The report didn't include data from the National Security Agency or the Central Intelligence Agency, which is confidential. But it noted that President Bush has called for an increase of 50 percent in some CIA jobs, a possible increase of 2,200 new clandestine officers.

Source: Courier Journal