Booming Market for Security-Cleared Employees

Workers with U.S. security clearances are in demand, and a backlog is making them even more valuable. It can take up to two years for an individual to receive a security clearance, and more than 400,000 candidates await clearances; in an effort to bring down this backlog, responsibility for clearance investigations recently has been handed from the Defense Security Service to the Office of Personnel Management. Unsurprisingly, Internet-based job boards like ClearanceJobs.com are becoming important links in the procurement chain. Open positions can be found in nearly every country with a U.S. military presence, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Source: National Defense Magazine, March 2005