From Federal Computer Week:

The hiring of workers with security clearances is expected to surge the first quarter of 2007 as a result of the many multimillion-dollar Department of Defense contracts that were awarded in December, according to the first edition of the ClearanceJobs Report for 2007.

According to ClearanceJobs.com, an online recruiting service, those estimates could change because although some employers post jobs online that are contingent upon a contract award, many job seekers don’t like applying for positions that don’t yet exist.

According to a 2006 survey conducted by Federal Computer Week, the Information Technology Association of America and a coalition of industry organizations, more than three-fourths of government contractors agreed that the need for cleared employees to work on federal contracts had increased “greatly” (51 percent) or “somewhat” (26 percent) in the past five years.

But more than half the respondents believed the security clearance process, run by the Defense Security Service and OPM, had worsened (31 percent) or not improved at all (24 percent) in the past year.

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