Workforce

A 29-year-old man who says he is a former undercover CIA employee said Sunday that he was the principal source of recent disclosures about ­top-secret National Security Agency programs , exposing himself to possible prosecution in an acknowledgment that had little if any precedent in the long history of U.S. intelligence leaks. Edward Snowden, a tech specialist who has contracted for the NSA and works for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, unmasked himself as a source after a string of stories in The Washington...

The task of introducing President Obama to the 2013 graduating class at the U.S. Naval Academy fell Friday to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is weighing a bid to succeed him. In remarks at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, O'Malley (D) praised Obama (D) as "a thoughtful and resolute" leader and said the graduates were well-prepared to serve in both the military and the country's workforce. "To give our country the better future that our children and our grandchildren deserve, we will need...

Have you heard the one about the kid who got his mom to call his boss and ask for a raise? Or about the college student who quit her summer internship because it forbade Facebook in the office? Yep, we're talking about Generation Y — loosely defined as those born between 1982 and 1999 — also known as millennials. Perhaps you know them by their other media-generated nicknames: teacup kids,for their supposed emotional fragility; boomerang kids, who always wind up back home; trophy kids —...

It's no secret that the economic upheaval of the recession wreaked havoc on many Americans' retirement plans. Between 2007 and 2010, the number of working Americans 55 and older grew by nearly 8 percent — the only group whose workforce participation rates increased. Couple that with many baby boomers' desire to keep working later into life for personal fulfillment, and you've got a cohort who are planning to stay in the workforce for the foreseeable future. And quite naturally, they're starting to ask: Is this what I want to spend...

Put out an all-points bulletin: Millions of Americans have gone missing from the workforce. Every month that those would-be workers are gone raises the odds that they might never come back, dimming the prospects for future economic growth. The vanishing trend is more than a decade old, but it accelerated during the Great Recession. Throughout 2012, economists held out hope that it had stopped. But then came Friday's jobs report, and hopes were dashed. The Labor Department reported that the U.S. labor force — everyone who has a...

The national security workforce doesn't provide the security it should. That is one message that emerged from yesterday's testimony before a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee. The problem is too few people with needed skills, too few qualified applicants to fill vacancies and too little training for those on the job. "Trained professionals, not technologies, are the cornerstone of our efforts to keep Americans safe," said Bob Graham, a former senator from Florida who is chairman of the Commission on...

The Sept. 5 article "Demographics may be idling recovery," about how a growth in retirees and fewer women in the workforce has stalled economic growth, was important and depressing but slightly off the mark. In the short term, corporate self-interest and risk aversion, which have led to heavy cash holdings, are primarily responsible for limited new jobs. Rather than "lowering our sights on potential GDP compared to when our population was younger," as Dean Maki of Barclays Capital was quoted as saying, we should be taking proactive...

President Obama on Thursday issued an executive order requiring government agencies to develop plans for improving federal workforce diversity. The long-awaited executive order directs a group of high-ranking officials to create a government-wide plan, followed by specific plans in each agency. It marks the highest-profile response to a problem that has been on the administration's radar: Whites still hold more than 81 percent of senior pay-level positions. "The federal government has a special opportunity to...

Lining the walls of many Capitol Hill offices are politicians' photos showing them with fellow politicians and other famous folks. In Dennis Ross's office, visitors are greeted by the wall-mounted heads of two wild boars and a deer. Nearby sits a stuffed turkey. The trophies mark Ross, a Republican congressman from Florida, as an avid hunter. He can kill creatures with a rifle or a shotgun, but he prefers the bow and arrow. "I'd much rather archery hunt," Ross said. "It's just a relaxing challenge.

The economic forces reshaping the global economy are prompting many local companies to pay new attention to an often overlooked form of diversity: The age of their workers. Since 1980, the median age of American workers has been steadily increasing, as the flood of Baby Boomers who entered the workforce in the '60s and '70s remain in their jobs. Some companies are finding the skills of those older workers don't always match the demands of the modern marketplace. For instance, as companies try to...

William Gary Vice President, Workforce Development Northern Virginia Community College I think most of us hear about workforce development and the next [phrase] you hear is "community colleges. " So throughout the country, community colleges are addressing what I call boots-on-the-ground challenges and issues that manufacturers in different industry sectors are experiencing. We're developing in partnership not only with other community colleges, but with industries themselves, curriculum,...

EMPLOYMENT I.T. workforce grows by nearly 5 percent The U.S. economy added 14,800 information technology jobs in March, according to a report by TechServe Alliance that shows steady monthly growth in this job category since January 2012. In the past 12 months, the number of I.T. jobs in the United States has risen by 208,100, and I.T employment has grown nearly 5 percent, the report shows. "Based on the data and anecdotal reports I hear from my member companies, demand for I.T. talent remains very...

In the past 20 years, our region has transformed into one of the nation's most desirable places to work and live. But there's a threat on the horizon, and it has nothing to do with sequestration. Long-term, one of the biggest challenges to our economic health is our local workforce. In the coming decades we will need to fill a million new jobs, while replacing two million positions vacated by retiring baby boomers. Most growth is coming in health care, education, high tech and finance — fields requiring an educated,...

Put out an all-points bulletin: Millions of Americans have gone missing from the workforce. Every month that those would-be workers are gone raises the odds that they might never come back, dimming the prospects for future economic growth. The vanishing trend is more than a decade old, but it accelerated during the Great Recession. Throughout 2012, economists held out hope that it had stopped. But then came Friday's jobs report, and hopes were dashed. The Labor Department reported that the U.S. labor force...

As the federal sequester affects the livelihood of people across the nation, Southern Maryland JobSource is offering help for area residents who are looking for a job. The Southern Maryland Workforce Investment Board's service delivery arm, Southern Maryland JobSource, gave a presentation last month to the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners on the free job-search services it offers tri-county residents. "We do have some places to turn if [residents] are affected," Ruthy Davis,...

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the number of furlough days at the Federal Aviation Administration. The story has been corrected. Every U.S. Park Police officer will be off the job for 14 days — but the national parks they patrol will be staffed. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will shut down for seven days starting in May, after concluding that staggering furloughs for 9,000 employees would create too much paperwork.

General Dynamics plans to dismiss about one-third of the workforce at its Woodbridge facility following the cancellation of the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program early this year. The company distributed layoff notices to 112 employees Tuesday, and the employees are expected to leave July 1, said Marie Remboulis, a spokeswoman for General Dynamics' land systems division. "We have begun the process of reducing the size of the workforce at the Woodbridge facility," she said.

William Gary Vice President, Workforce Development Northern Virginia Community College I think most of us hear about workforce development and the next [phrase] you hear is "community colleges. " So throughout the country, community colleges are addressing what I call boots-on-the-ground challenges and issues that manufacturers in different industry sectors are experiencing. We're developing in partnership not only with other community colleges, but with industries themselves,...

Sheryl Sandberg gave a lecture, which gathered a following, which became a book, which landed like a bomb, which has been widely misunderstood (or has it?) for being terribly elitist (or is it?) for its depiction of women and ambition in the workforce. This week, she came to Washington to explain. Again. "I don't speak for every person in the world. I never claimed to — no one can. " "The whole point of this book was to let ourselves off the hook. " "Believe in yourself.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley chalked up his first win of the 90-day legislative session Tuesday with passage of a modest jobs training bill by the House of Delegates. The legislation, known as the Employment Advancement Right Now bill , or EARN, cleared the Senate unanimously last month. The 115 to 23 vote in the House on Tuesday sends the measure to O'Malley (D) for his signature. The bill creates a $2.5 million annual grant program for workforce training...