The federal government is shut down, but that hasn't stopped agencies from running lots of “help wanted” ads.
More than 4,000 job postings remained active on the federal government’s hiring site as of Tuesday. Although many ads first ran before the shutdown began, nearly 500 posts were placed in the past three days.
The vacancies include some high-priced positions: a media relations officer job paying up to $155,000 at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency in charge of implementing Obamacare, and a senior communications and marketing specialist for the Patent and Trademark Office, making up to $136,000.
The newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau placed an ad Friday for a chief of staff to the chief information officer, a position that advertises a salary of $121,000 to $224,000.
With so much of the rest of the government closed, including national monuments and parks, the advertising of so many job postings raises larger questions about the shutdown, according to one government watchdog.
“It goes to the whole discussion about how much of a shutdown this really is in the first place,” said David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
“It’s more of a slowdown or a selective shutdown where they’re shutting down things that are getting the biggest bang for the PR buck,” Mr. Williams said.
“It’s a strange thing to be shutting down memorials and, at the same time, they keep trying to hire people. That makes no sense.”
