The budget cuts known as sequestration were supposed to wreak havoc, forcing the shrinking of critical workforces including airport security officers and food inspectors.
But since sequestration kicked in March 4, the government has posted openings for 4,300 federal job titles to hire some 10,300 people. The median position has a salary topping out at $76,000, and one-fourth of positions pay $113,000 or more, according to an analysis by The Washington Times of federal job listings.
Altogether, the jobs will pay up to $792 million per year. Including job postings that have been open since before sequestration, the government is in the market for 27,000 employees who will make up to $1.8 billion a year.
The jobs posted since sequestration include 2,800 positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs, 519 at the Indian Health Service and 50 at the Smithsonian Institution.
They also include service jobs seemingly designed to ensure that existing government employees live well.
The Defense Department is recruiting 71 bartenders and 123 waiters. If they worked full-time, these employees would earn more than $3.4 million a year. Nearly half of these positions were first posted after sequestration kicked in.
Nearly 200 positions related to Army-run bowling alleys are open.
“Golf, horseback riding, swimming, bowling, arts & crafts, and sport shooting are just some of things our employees call a job!” say some advertisements for positions open to U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike. One position in Hawaii pays up to $110,000 — plus a 12 percent cost-of-living adjustment — to oversee such recreation facilities.
At the Transportation Security Administration, which said sequestration would result in widespread flight delays, 436 positions, almost all for security officers, have been posted since March 4.
TSA also is hiring for quality assurance, logistics management, information technology and program analyst roles. Each of these jobs can pay more than $137,000 a year.
An email from one federal agency indicated that it was intentionally placing the brunt of the cuts on critical and high-profile positions instead of low-priority jobs to lend credence to the dire warnings it had proffered to Congress in a plea for more funding.
“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘[the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” leaders said.
The Agriculture Department's Forest Service is hiring numerous people at nearly 800 locations, but could not specify how many it would hire in all.
Where agencies said they were hiring “a few” or “many” people for a position, The Times estimated those values at five and 15, respectively, except for Forest Service positions being sought at hundreds of locations.
“As a result of sequestration, the Forest Service does anticipate hiring possibly 1,000 fewer seasonal jobs this year,” spokeswoman Tiffany Holloway said in an email.
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