Clearance jobs and COVID-19

Evan Lesser, founder and president of ClearanceJobs.com, joins host Derrick Dortch on this week's Fed Access to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted ...

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This week on Fed Access, Evan Lesser, founder and president of ClearanceJobs.com, joined host Derrick Dortch to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the clearance jobs market, including the ability of some cleared professionals to work remotely from home.

Head shot of Lesser
Evan Lesser, founder & president, ClearanceJobs.com

According to Lesser,  67% of employers in a recent survey said they currently have a telework option for some cleared workers and 82% said they are going to continue to allow some employees to telework even after the pandemic is over.

Lesser also gives an update on the progress the federal government is making in speeding up the security clearance process. The processing times decreased for four straight quarters but he said they rose slightly during the pandemic. Currently it takes about 136 days for a job seeker to get a top secret security clearance and 132 days for secret clearances. Lesser said the increased processing times are due in part to delayed  investigations of potential workers, and the inability to do face-to-face interviews with job applicants.

Finally, Lesser discusses the state of the clearance jobs market which he said is a tough and tight market because of a shortage of cleared workers. He said companies are “bordering on desperate” in trying to fill open cleared positions, and many of them are offering large signing bonuses as an incentive.

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