A prominent Federal program aimed at bringing young professionals into the government has seen a 64 percent decrease in hires, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which says the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) should do more to improve the talent pipeline.
The decline in hires for OPM’s Pathways Programs illustrates an overall hiring trend since the programs were implemented in fiscal year 2013, GAO said in a March 20 report. The number of Pathways Participants entering the Federal workforce has fluctuated year to year.
Yet OPM has not taken enough steps to understand the hiring issues, failing to “identify factors that impact hiring trends” or collect feedback from program participants, according to GAO.
“Without a process in place to collect and share lessons learned, OPM is missing an opportunity to leverage stakeholders’ knowledge to improve the government’s ability to recruit, hire, retain, and manage its early career talent pipeline,” concluded the report, which recommended a series of steps to gather more data and improve the programs.
Established in 2010, Pathways consists of an internship program for current students; a recent graduates program; and the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program for people who obtained an advanced degree within the last two years.
President Donald Trump last month signed an executive order that began the process of terminating the PMF program – drawing criticism for cutting off a key talent pipeline into civil service careers – though the remaining internship and recent graduates programs include the majority of participants.
The administration’s targeting of PMF and the GAO criticism spotlight an issue that has drawn increasing attention in recent years from workforce experts and members of Congress: whether the government is doing enough to recruit young talent amid a wave of retirements expected among Federal workers.
Especially causing concern is a technology skills gap even as Federal agencies face growing cybersecurity threats and increasingly adopt artificial intelligence solutions with the advancement of AI technologies.
The GAO report acknowledged these technology-related workforce issues in a letter contained in the document to House Oversight and Reform Committee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.
“The federal government faces long-standing challenges in managing its workforce, including ensuring that its future employees have the skills to address current and emerging demands in areas such as cybersecurity, acquisition management, and use of artificial intelligence,” the letter says.
A key strategy to fill these gaps, the letter adds, is using Pathways as “a pipeline for recruitment in the federal government.”
The Biden administration attempted to strengthen the Federal workforce through the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) and last year issued a rule to update the Pathways Programs. It expanded skills-based hiring through qualified career programs, raised the ceiling for starting salaries for recent graduates, and eased the path for interns to be converted into permanent positions.
The workforce has faced renewed pressure in recent weeks with the mass firings and resignations of tens of thousands of Federal employees, spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Additionally, OPM has failed to take full advantage of the ways Pathways can help fill the workforce gaps, according to the GAO report.
The programs, it said, were “designed to improve the competitiveness of federal recruiting and promote federal employment opportunities for students and recent graduates. Pathways provides distinct paths to federal internships and potential careers in the government.”
To improve Pathways, GAO made a series of recommendations that included gathering more data on hiring fluctuations and collecting feedback from program participants. OPM concurred with the recommendations.