On December 9, 2011, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) solicited public comments on its proposed rule that will require Federal contractors and subcontractors of having at least 7 percent of their workforce be people with disabilities.  (For more information, see our post on December 13, 2011, below.)

The deadline for submitting comments has been extended from February 7, 2012, until February 21, 2012.  According to OFCCP, if you already commented, you do not need to resubmit your comments.  OFCCP will consider all comments it receives from the publication of the proposed rule through the close of the extended comment period.

On December 9, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published in the Federal Register a proposed rule that will require Federal contractors and subcontractors of having at least 7 percent of their workforce be people with disabilities.

The proposed regulatory changes also details specific actions Federal contractors would have to take in recruiting, training, keeping records, and disseminating policy regarding individuals with disabilities.

The OFCCP invites public comment on the proposal.  Comments are due on or before February 7, 2012.

According to DOL, the proposed rule aims to strengthen the implementing regulations of section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which “requires government contractors and subcontractors to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities.”

For more information on the proposed rule and/or to submit comments, visit

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=OFCCP-2010-0001-0130.

External Factors Influencing Employee Job Satisfaction

Based on the Society of Human Resources Management’s (SHRM) 2011 job satisfaction survey, the following are the top 10 factors employees rated “very important” affecting job satisfaction.

This is a follow up to our post in August regarding the Administration’s proposed programs to encourage companies to hire military veterans.  The proposals have now come to be.

On November 21, 2011, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act was signed into law (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr674enr/pdf/BILLS-112hr674enr.pdf).  The act will give tax credits for any business that hires a veteran who has been unemployed for at least 4 weeks.  A company can get an even bigger tax break if it hires a veteran who has been unemployed for at least 6 months.  What is more, a business can get more tax break if the veteran has a disability related to their military service.

The Administration has also launched the Joining Forces initiative to help military veterans find employment after leaving the military.  As part of this initiative, the Administration challenged the private sector employers to hire or train 100,000 unemployed veterans or their spouses by the end of 2013.  Companies that responded to the challenge include Microsoft, Siemens, Honeywell, Humana, JP Morgan, AT&T, Walmart, Accenture, HP, and Lockheed Martin.

The document is a first strategic plan on how the US can build a globally competitive cybersecurity workforce.  NIST and its interagency partners (DHS and OPM, to name just two) seek comments from the public and organizations concerned with cybersecurity.

One main objective outlined in the plan is to develop a cybersecurity competency framework.  As an emerging career field, cybersecurity lacks a common terminology for career paths, position descriptions, and qualifications, according to NIST.  The competency framework will establish definitions and standards, which are critical in measuring and assessing the performance of the cybersecurity workforce with some degree of consistency.

What the plan states to do:

• Make the standardized functional roles publicly available.
• By 2012, Federal agencies must adopt cybersecurity competency model.
• By 2013, assess the strength of the Federal, state, and local cybersecurity workforce against defined cybersecurity competencies.
• By 2015, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments must adopt common workforce descriptions.
• Federal contractors will also be required, by 2015, to comply with standard cybersecurity workforce descriptions to win government contracts.
• By 2015, assess the capabilities of the private sector cybersecurity workforce against projected market requirements.

The document also includes a plan to look into the professionalization, certification, and licensing standards for the cybersecurity workforce.

You may read the NICE strategic plan by visiting http://go.usa.gov/KFv.  You may submit your comments by using the Comment-Template_Draft-NICE.xls available at http://go.usa.gov/KFw and sending it to nicestratplan@nist.gov.  Comments are due September 12, 2011.

President Obama proposed two new programs to help veterans get jobs.  Unemployment rate for post 9/11 veterans—also known as Gulf War-Era II veterans—was 12.4 percent in July 2011, a much higher rate than the national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent.  Unemployment for veterans will likely increase once service members start coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan at the end of the year.  To lower the unemployment rate for these veterans, President Obama proposed two new hiring tax credits that will provide an incentive for companies to hire unemployed veterans.  These new tax credits require Congressional approval before they can be implemented.

The Returning Heroes Tax Credit

• A new tax credit of up to $2,400 for each veteran a company hires who has been unemployed for at least 4 weeks but less than 6 months.
• A new tax credit of up to $4,800 if the veteran has been unemployed for 6 months or more.

The Wounded Warrior Tax Credit

• A new credit of up to $9,600 for companies that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities who have been unemployed for 6 months or more.
• The maximum credit of $4,800 will continue for all other veterans with a service-connected disability.

Assignments will range from three months to a year (it can be extended to a total of one additional year).  DOD is particularly interested in those who are skilled in Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, IT Consolidation, Network Services, IT Project Management, Data Management and Enterprise Architecture.

To be eligible for the program, private sector employees must be a U.S.citizen and hold a security clearance.  For more information about the program, visit http://cio-nii.defense.gov/sites/itep/.

If you’re interested in gaining government experience, DOD has the following detail opportunities:

• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Air Force, SAF/A6A (Air Traffic Services), Net-Centric Operations Division,Washington,DC
• Strategic Mobility & Wireless Domain, HQ Army, Office of the Chief Information Officer/G-6, Cyber Directorate, Emerging Technologies Division,Arlington,VA
• Mobility & Wireless Domain, Office of the Department of Defense, Chief Information Officer, Office of Defense-wide Information Assurance Program (DIAP), Arlington, VA
• Cyber Remote Training Development, Office of the Department of Defense, Chief Information Officer, Office of Defense-wide Information Assurance Program (DIAP), Fort Meade, MD or Quantico, VA
• IT Project Management, Visual Information Services Branch, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA),Fort Meade,MD
• Cloud Computing, Department of Defense, Chief Information Officer, Office of theEnterpriseServices and Integration,Arlington,VA
• Cyber Policy, Office of Cyber Policy, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy,Arlington,VA
• IT Project Management-Data Management, DOD Comptroller, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Business Integration Office,Washington,DC

You can find more information about these exchange opportunities at:  http://cio-nii.defense.gov/sites/itep/opp.htm.

If none of these opportunities interest you, but are interested in participating in the pilot, send an email expressing your interest to askitep@osd.mil.

On Monday, June 13, while touring a manufacturing plant inDurham,NC, President Obama presented ideas to spur job growth.  One of the ideas was to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education.  The President said, “Private sector companies are teaming up to help us promote STEM education, to offer students incentives to finish those degrees, and then to help universities fund those programs.  They’re going to double their summer internship hiring.”

This program, if fully implemented, will boast the number of college graduates needed to meet the increasing demand of industry to fill a variety of high-tech occupations.  As we mentioned in our previous post, degrees in STEM is not keeping up with demand.  As this graphic shows from the Department of Education, a push to spur growth in the number of degrees conferred in STEM is badly needed.  Except for biological and biomedical sciences (many students in this field of study eventually pursue a medical degree), degrees conferred in science and engineering has remained fairly flat.  More alarming is the decrease in the number of degrees conferred in the computer and information sciences.  For this reason any program that will encourage more students to pursue a science or engineering degree is worthwhile.

In April, there were 13.7 million unemployed people in theU.S.  You would think that with that many number of unemployed, hundreds of applicants will knock at employers’ doors with job vacancies.  Perhaps this is the case for certain occupations, but for positions that require highly skilled and experienced personnel, this is not the case.  We at DC Confidential have seen positions advertised by companies that go begging.

Who are these elusive candidates?  Many are what we commonly refer to as “high-tech” workers, workers who are performing work that is both highly skilled and capital intensive.  Examples of these high-tech workers are engineers, computer network, systems, and database administrators, and scientists.

And they can afford to be elusive or passive job seekers. They are already employed and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that many of the jobs these high-tech workers do will grow faster than other occupations.  For example, the following occupations are projected to grow and add more new jobs over the 2008-18 decade, resulting in excellent job prospects for those who are in them or those who want to be.

Occupation                                                                 Percent change 2008 to 2018

Biomedical engineers                                                                          72

Computer software engineer, applications                                      53

Network systems & data communications analysts                      53

Medical scientists                                                                                40

Biochemists & biophysicists                                                               37

Computer software engineer, systems software                           30

Computer network and computer systems administrators         23

Database administrators                                                                   20

Other high-tech occupations are also projected to increase but to a lesser extent, except computer programmers.  BLS projects the need for computer programmers will decrease by 3 percent through 2018 as software design continues to advance and some programming functions become automated.

Based on these projections, recruiters for high-tech occupations can expect candidates to become just as elusive or become more so.  According to the U.S. Department of Education, the number of people receiving degrees that feed into these high-tech occupations has increased, e.g., engineering, but would still be insufficient to meet increasing demands.  Of special note is the number of graduates in computer and information science:  after an explosive growth through the 1990’s, it tapered off immediately after the dotcom bubble in 1999 and remained flat since then.  Also, many degrees in engineering, science, and math are conferred to foreign students who will not be available to U.S. employers, thus reducing the number of graduates feeding into these high-tech occupations.

If you are one of the professionals who belong to these high-tech occupations, the future looks rosy, indeed.  You can afford to be choosy.  As more and more technology invades our daily lives, you will become more in demand.  Consequently, you can expect your compensation to grow significantly higher than average; and it will, according to BLS.

So now you think it would be a piece of cake to find that “perfect” job that pays oodles of money.  Right?  Not necessarily.  What you can expect is this: because you’re in demand, you will end up with a lot of suitors.  What to do?  Whom to accept?  Which one will make you happy?  Will you now get to work nirvana?  Maybe.

To increase your odds, you may want to consider working with a matchmaker, a talent agent, who will give you guidance and assistance in sifting through opportunities the market has to offer.  This is especially critical if you are a woman: for various reasons, you are generally paid less than your male counterparts.  For the same job.  Even in high-tech jobs where women are scarce.  This just shows you scarcity alone is no guarantee for big money.  So, it may benefit you to have a talent agent who will help you match jobs with your talents and help you negotiate the pay you deserve.

If you are an employer of these elusive job candidates, you too, are in a bind, especially if you are a small company.  How do you compete for this scarce resource?  You may need to look at your recruiting strategy.  It is highly likely that your usual strategy for attracting your other workers will not work here.  The usual ad in the Employment section of a newspaper, or posting on a job board or on company website is now insufficient.  It will be a challenge, but not impossible, to attract job candidates who have the talent, skills, and experience you require.  In our next post, we will provide you with some tips as to how.