Could This Be The Rise Of Government Jobs?

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Have you ever dreamed about working at the Government Accountability Office? Now, you might.

It was listed at the best midsize federal agency to work at in 2023 by a survey of more than 1 million federal workers conducted by the Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group. The list measures how satisfied employees are with their job, their employer and whether they would recommend that employer as a good place to work. More than 500 federal agencies and subcomponents were ranked for the list.

While the Government Accountability Office may not be the sexiest, or flashiest, employer around (that title would go to NASA, the best large agency according to the rankings), federal government jobs could be the perfect place for a long, stable career in today’s market.

“In today’s context, it seems like job security is something that employees care a lot about,” Daniel Zhao, lead economist at the firm, told me earlier this year.

Government jobs were just one of two sectors that had positive year-over-year growth in employee confidence (legal being the other), according to Glassdoor’s May employee confidence report. “You might not necessarily be getting huge income or career growth. But there is a lot of value in job security,” adds Zhao.

And that security also comes from the fact that they’re still hiring: The government sector, alongside healthcare and hospitality, was one of the biggest job creators in May, according to BLS data. From policy workers in Washington, D.C. to park rangers across the country, the federal government remains the largest employer in the U.S.

Happy reading, and have a good week!

WORK SMARTER

Practical insights and advice from Forbes staff and contributors to help you succeed in your job, accelerate your career and lead smarter

Here’s how to talk to your boss when you feel disrespected.

Keeping a success journal is just one way to stop second guessing your decisions at work.

Could dating services as a work benefit be the solution to your loneliness?

CAREERS ADVICE Q&A: Rapid-Fire Actionable Advice

One of my favorite parts about writing this section of the newsletter is getting into the nitty gritty, but also the real advice from top business minds. Is the best way to deal with rejection from a job by focusing on what you could have done better and moving on, or going for a walk and grabbing some ice cream? Is it both? This is a short collection of rapid-fire advice from female business leaders, collected during the Mom’s First Summit in NYC in May. They all answer the question: “What is the best piece of actionable advice you have?”

Kathryn Kaminsky, incoming chief commercial officer at PwC: “Buy yourself flowers every week.”

Olivia Walton, founder and CEO of Ingeborg Investments: “Control your own finances. Invest in women. And teach your daughters about money.”

Tiffany Dufu, president of the Tory Burch Foundation: “Write your own job description for every role that you have in your life. Do not just accept society’s job description. Decide what you want to fulfill, what success looks like for you, and engage the other people to help you build it.”

Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange: “Find your younger self in your organization, and encourage those women because they’re the future of the country.”

TOUCH BASE

News from the world of work

Did you quit your job in the last year after stricter return-to-office mandates? Turns out, that was at least part of the plan for many companies. Jena McGregor reports on new research that shows that about one in five HR professionals say that they hoped for some voluntary turnover after implementing RTO mandates. Talk about saying the quiet part out loud.

More than 1,000 Google employees urged the company to divest their 401(k) plans from fossil fuels, in the latest instance of employee activism at the tech company. Forbes’ Richard Nieva reports on the group of employees advocating for more sustainability practices from their employer.

With today’s competitive job market, internships are becoming more important to gain full-time employment within six months of graduation, according to a new LinkedIn study. Interns, those coming from both undergraduate and graduate programs, are 25% more likely to find employment in that critical time frame.

Tipping is getting out of hand, or so one-third of Americans think, according to a new survey. It’s become quite the topic in the news recently, as former President Donald Trump said in a rally on Sunday that he planned to eliminate taxes on tipped wages if he were to be elected president (something the IRS has recently started looking at more closely).

Remember when working in the metaverse was all the rave in remote work? Now, it sounds like Zoom CEO Eric Yuan wants to bring it back. He wants your “digital twin,” a deepfake of yourself, to be able to join Zoom meetings on your behalf, he told The Verge.

NUMBER TO NOTE

272,000

That’s the number of jobs added nationwide in May, according to the Labor Department, well above what analysts expected. But it’s not all bright and dandy in the job market: ADP reported far weaker job growth for the month, and job placement consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas said that employers’ public plans for new hires in the first five months of 2024 were their weakest since 2014.

VIDEO

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QUIZ

Which retailer is now offering its hourly part- and full-time workers the opportunity to earn up to a $1,000 bonus?

A. Target

B. Costco

C. Walmart

D. Kohl’s

Check if you got it right here.