Ross Gianfortune
This is GovExec Daily, where we bring you the federal stories that really matter.  It's March 22, 2021 . I’m Ross Gianfortune.

In a March 2020 memo, the Office of Management Budget instructed agencies to switch to maximum telework. As most employees transitioned to remote work, some who worked with classified information had to make adjustments. As the pandemic telework period went on, agencies found ways to work around those rules and more and more security-cleared professionals are now exercising virtual work options, hybrid work environments, shift schedules, and other approaches.

Each year, Clearancejobs.com surveys security cleared professionals about their viewpoints on salary, job satisfaction and other employment topics. This year, the comprehensive survey included 45,000 individuals with active federal security clearances. The survey results show that security cleared professionals value the stability and salary that come along with a security clearance.

Coming up next, I'll talk to Evan Lesser,  president of Clearancejobs.com, to discuss the state of workers with clearances. I'll talk to him about his site's survey after a short message.
 
Ross Gianfortune
Since the COVID 19 pandemic, state and local leaders have faced their greatest challenges to protect the health of residents while dealing with economic turmoil, what lies ahead for states, cities and counties in a post pandemic world. During the one year into the COVID crisis townhall viewers will explore how state and local governments plan to move forward in a way that makes them more resilient and equitable visit route fifty.com slash events for more information. That's our outfifty.com slash events,

Ross Gianfortune
The past year has been quite challenging for everyone, but the challenges facing federal employees and contractors have been particularly difficult.Those working with classified information had to make different adjustments than those who do not and the new telework reality took an adjustment period. Each year, including this very strange pandemic year, ClearanceJobs.com surveys security cleared professionals about their compensation, job, and salary satisfaction. On a post on GovExec.com, ClearanceJobs.com’s Lindy Kzyer looked at the results and analyzed how cleared professionals responded to questions about their pay and their work lives.

Welcome to the podcast.

Evan Lesser 
Thanks so much good to talk with you.

Ross Gianfortune 
Your site released its annual security clearance compensation survey or is, like I mentioned, so what are the top line numbers from the people who responded.

Evan Lesser
Yeah, so at the highest level total compensation for clear professionals was reported up by 2%. Since our last survey to almost $104,000 per year on average, and, you know, while this is a modest increase considering possible living increases, you know very few industries saw pay increases in 2020 during the worst global pandemic and more than 100 years or so. So 18% of clear workers reported no change in salary, and just a small percentage saw actual declines and compensation for those who did see their total compensation go down just 8% set of a student pandemic so you know again clear workers understand pretty well that having a clearance means job security, even during record US unemployment. The fact that so many cleared professionals were able to work from home, over the last year. It's kind of a somewhat surprising strength of the defense industry and one that we all didn't really know existed until put to the test.

Ross Gianfortune 
It's certainly been an eye opening, in that sense. You know, you do the survey, pretty much every year, how have things changed.

Evan Lesser
Well for starters just 18% of cleared workers reported no change and their total compensation in 2020. And again for a global pandemic with record US unemployment mass layoffs and furloughs. That's pretty remarkable. Average total compensation was up across the board. But one of the biggest challenges since last survey was that 85% of workers with clearance are at least somewhat likely to change jobs in the next year. That's up 4% And really a huge number. Think about how worried, any executive would be if 85% of their workforce was considering moving on to a new employer in the next 12 months it would be a panic. In fact, only 15% of people with security clearance said they had just no interest of moving employers in next year so it's a candidates market, for sure, very volatile turnover as frequent. With regards to retention. Another new data point that we have is that 79% of millennials and Gen X are said they were likely or very likely to change jobs in the next year. So employers would be really smart to pay attention to retention specifically for younger clear professionals, and finally one other interesting item of note is that government employees saw their average total compensation increased by 3%. In the last year whereas government contractors. So there's go up by only 1%. And we've seen a trend for the last couple years, that government jobs are paying better now. They're still about 5k less, on average annually when compared to government contractor jobs but never increasing.

Ross Gianfortune
So Lynnie Kyzer’s analysis on our site, suggests that there are some clearance holders who are willing to make a move sort of building off what you just said, but they're sticking in the private sector, the public sector rather. Why do you think that is and what do you see as far as the trends there.

Evan Lesser
Yeah, it's interesting question. As you know, the last administration had a you know a number of government shutdowns and probably the longest on record, it's kind of bad business for national security but it kind of helped to sour. The work that security third professionals were doing, but, you know, right before the pandemic, we reported that 55% of security clearance holders had received a non clear job offer in the last 12 months. And a lot of clearance holders were interested in leaving their clearances behind them, moving to the uncleared world many many did. But then, boom, you know, pandemic happened and quickly made clear that having a clearance meant solid job security, and people were less likely to lose that career asset in this survey 66% of security cleared professionals said that they were not at all likely to leave this industry and take a non cleared position that's up 9% Since last year, not too shocking for our pandemic. When asked most people said they consider leaving their clearance behind it was due to retirement, or keeping their options open or seeking higher pay, so there's definitely a reason why security clearance holders would be willing to make a move out of the industry previously but not so much with the pandemic in our rearview mirror.

Ross Gianfortune 
The threat of shutdowns has come some recently and OMB Deputy Director nominee has promised that they're going to avoid future shutdowns. At any cost but though OMB can't control the whims of Congress during the budget process. So with the wide definition of what is considered an essential worker clearance holders are in fact often considered essential but do shutdowns factor into this at all and does. Did you survey anything about that aspect of it.

Evan Lesser 
Yeah, definitely. And as I mentioned before, you know the last administration had a number of government shutdowns including the longest one on record. To this end, job satisfaction was down in 2020 only 56% of clear workers said they were satisfied with their jobs that's down 8% from our last survey and likewise, more clear professionals said they were dissatisfied with their work, and increase 3% year over year so satisfaction, or lack thereof, is going in the wrong direction, both for salaries as well as jobs, you know, avoiding a future government shutdown would be a, you know, not just helpful but almost critical. It's not too surprising, but those cleared workers that are getting paid more are more satisfied with their jobs and pay, but almost half of security clearance holders are either neutral or negative on their pay and work, and that's fostered much more volatility in hiring and keeping employees in their seats than any time in recent history so clearly people are affected by government shutdowns. Even those that are critical for national security, not everyone is working with classified information on a daily basis. Most people with clearance need clearance due to the location of their workplace and their proximity to classified information even if they don't access it daily. So yeah, the shutdowns affected them greatly, and it helps you cast a little bit more of a negative pall over satisfaction.

Ross Gianfortune
So let's talk about satisfaction and again we'll sort of circle a little bit on the top line numbers, you know, the survey measures satisfaction with clearance holders, how satisfied are they, and, you know, the further along. Why do you think that is.

Evan Lesser
Yeah so job satisfaction was definitely down. As I mentioned, just a little bit over half of people with clearance are satisfied with their jobs and that's down 8% In the last survey so, you know, unfortunately. While a lot of people with security clearance, were very happy with their employers, during the pandemic. It was surprising how quickly they're able to work from home and change their whole job outlook. In the past, people with clearance really never had an option to work at home and here they were all of a sudden, forced to work from home. So there was a lot of satisfaction, around the response to the pandemic and employers working to keep their employees on the job and not furloughed and not getting pay cuts and the defense industry in general was pretty resilient during the pandemic so satisfaction around response to the pandemic was up, but overall job and salary satisfaction is definitely down, and you know that is a new thing for 2020 I don't know if that'll be a trend, but it's almost like you know what have you done for me lately, you know the the pandemic. Everyone quickly realized they could work from home they can be productive, their employers were very accommodating. Now that the pandemic is starting to look like it's in its final stages, security guard workers are now saying okay, maybe I'm not as happy as I thought I was and maybe it's time to jump ship and look for something else. 

Ross Gianfortune  
This last year you know the what have you done for me lately kind of year will end on this, there's been a lot of upheaval during that year. How do you characterize the state of clearance holders, as you look at the survey results?

Evan Lesser
Yeah, so there may have been a couple of things that were negative and I know we've kind of touched on a lot of those today but listen, the job market for people with clearances, incredibly strong, there are far more open positions than cleared workers to fill them. Plain and simple. The total population of cleared people is down roughly 20% Since 2013 and employers are feeling the pinch you know we've seen big salaries, large signing bonuses and rampant poaching of talent between contracting firms, until there are more clear people available. It's a candidates game and they can call the shots. So security clearance holders are sitting in the proverbial catbird seat, and until the marketplace really, you know dynamics really change. Its their market, and employers are going to be struggling to fill these positions and candidates are really gonna be able to call the shots.

Ross Gianfortune 
I'm sure that's great news to our listeners who are holding clearances and will certainly be following this as it goes forward and as the vaccines get rolled out and more people are actually able to have in person interviews and those kinds of things. But in the meantime Ivan thanks so much for being on the show with us.

Evan Lesser
Good to talk with you.

Ross Gianfortune
Thanks for listening to GovExec Daily. Our show was produced by Adam Butler and hosted by me, Ross Gianfortune. We want to thank Evan Lesser of Clearancejobs,com for joining the program. Our music is the song “Signals” by Catfish Dancing. Be sure to rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can email us any feedback at podcast @ govexec.com or hit us on Twitter @ Govexec.  
 
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