Salaries jump in metro Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts; Cleared
candidates earning 22% more on average than closest equivalent non-cleared
counterparts
DES MOINES, Iowa, March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- ClearanceJobs.com, the
leading Internet-based job board for professionals with active U.S.
government security clearances, today announced the results of its annual
Security Clearance Jobs Salary Survey. According to the survey, cleared
defense industry workers reported average nationwide salaries of $72,803, 6
percent higher than the 2007 published results of $68,139.
Average salaries in the largest area for security-cleared employment,
metropolitan Washington, D.C., continue to be the highest, at $80,380, and
saw a 2 percent gain from the previous survey in 2007. Within that area,
though, are some of the largest salary gains for any region in the country.
Crystal City, Virginia, with its close proximity to the Pentagon, had a 19
percent increase in reported salaries in the past year, the largest gain in
the area. Arlington county gained 10 percent, the second largest gain.
Massachusetts, which has experienced a rapid influx of defense-related
jobs, had a 9.7 percent increase, the largest of any single state.
Candidates with Top Secret and higher clearances earned, as expected,
the highest average salaries, with gains of approximately 6 percent.
However, candidates with lower levels of security clearances reported a 12
percent jump in salary indicating their viability in the market.
Security clearance jobs continue to pay better than their closest
equivalent non-cleared counterparts. Among the 20 highest paid job
categories, security-cleared candidates earn an average of $19,138, or 22
percent, more than their closest non-cleared peers.
"This is a job seekers market. With the quantity of qualified
candidates in much shorter supply than the number of open jobs, wages for
cleared candidates are expected to continue rising," said Evan Lesser,
Director and founder of ClearanceJobs.com. "Salaries increased for other
reasons as well, including the shift of workers to higher-paying areas
geographically as a result of the government's Base Realignment and Closure
Act as well as the ongoing backlog of candidates awaiting clearance."
Other key findings of the survey include:
-- Government contractors are earning an average of 22 percent higher
salaries than their government employee counterparts.
-- Security-cleared jobs provide more equitable pay between men and women
than non-security-cleared jobs. Women with security clearances earn
about 89 cents to every dollar cleared men earn compared to non-cleared
women who earn 77 cents to every dollar non-cleared men earn.
-- Cleared candidates who have passed Polygraph exams earn approximately
15 percent more per year on average than cleared candidates who have
not.
-- Cleared candidates' job satisfaction remains mostly high, primarily due
to optimism about growth of the U.S. defense industry and relative
confidence in job security.
Users can visit http://ClearanceJobs.com/salary for the full survey
results, including reports and analysis on salaries by location, clearance
level, polygraph level, industry, gender and salary satisfaction. Data for
the Security Clearance Jobs Salary Survey Report was collected from more
than 4,200 security-cleared professionals registered on ClearanceJobs.com
between March 20, 2007 and February 20, 2008.
About ClearanceJobs.com
ClearanceJobs, a Dice Holdings, Inc. company, is the leading Internet-
based job board dedicated to matching job seekers who hold an active
security clearance with the best hiring companies searching for new
employees. Authorized U.S. government contractors and their representatives
utilize the secure service to quickly and easily locate candidates with
specific security clearance requirements to fill open jobs. For more
information, please visit http://www.ClearanceJobs.com.
About Dice Holdings, Inc.
Dice Holdings, Inc. is a leading provider of specialized career
websites for professional communities, including technology and
engineering, capital markets and financial services, accounting and
finance, and security clearance. Our mission is to help our customers
source and hire the most qualified professionals in select and highly
skilled occupations, and to help those professionals find the best job
opportunities in their respective fields and further their careers. For
more than 17 years, we have built our company by providing our customers
with quick and easy access to high-quality, unique professional communities
and offering those communities access to highly relevant career
opportunities and information. Today, we serve multiple markets in North
America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
SOURCE ClearanceJobs.com
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Related links:
http://ClearanceJobs.com
http://ClearanceJobs.com/salary
http://www.diceholdingsinc.com
CONTACT:
Rich Layne, Managing Director, ICR, Inc.,
+1-203-682-8224, or Fax: +1-212-710-6461, Rich.Layne@icrinc.com,
http://www.icrinc.com, for ClearanceJobs.com
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