Cleared Salaries Heating Up as Defense Budgets Grow

NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleared candidates are willing to make a move. They're fielding numerous job offers, and a significant number are open to considering a position outside of the cleared industry. That's the message of the 2019 ClearanceJobs Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey.

"The survey findings really confirm what we already know about cleared professionals—they're facing significant outward pressure, and that creates incredibly high candidate confidence," said Evan Lesser, President and Founder of ClearanceJobs. "When you're fielding multiple contacts from recruiters on a daily or weekly basis, that creates a dynamic where frequent job moves aren't the anomaly, they're the norm."

With Amazon ramping up hiring for its HQ2 headquarters in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington, VA and the national unemployment rate remaining at near record lows – 3.5% in September – companies and government agencies hiring for national security positions face strong and growing pressure from the commercial sector.

Security cleared professionals were asked if they had received any non-cleared job offers in the past year. 52% of respondents had received a non-cleared job offer, and of those, 50% had received 3 or more offers. 34% of those job offers were at a higher salary.

High Satisfaction, High Flight Risk

Job and salary satisfaction are both relatively high— 52% of respondents said they were very or somewhat satisfied with both their salary and job, a figure in-line with national averages across industries. Despite being satisfied with their work and pay, a whopping 84% of respondents said they were at least somewhat likely to accept a new job in the coming year, meaning job hopping is alive and well.

And while 46% of respondents indicated they were not at all likely to leave the cleared industry, a significant number—54%—reported they were at least somewhat likely to leave the cleared industry in the next five years.

Salary is the strongest motivator for leaving the cleared industry, with 49% of respondents citing higher pay as their main motivator for leaving the cleared industry. Next is more advancement opportunities, followed by opportunity to work on more exciting projects, and then location—the desire to move to an area where they can't put their clearance to work.

Read more survey results in our comprehensive Salary Satisfaction Report.

ClearanceJobs Salary Survey Methodology 
The 2019 ClearanceJobs Satisfaction Survey was administered online between April 1 and April 30, 2019. Participants had to have a current, active federal security clearance and be currently employed to be included in the results, which included 2486 usable responses.

About ClearanceJobs 
ClearanceJobs is the largest security-cleared career network specializing in defense and intelligence jobs for professionals with security clearance. ClearanceJobs is committed to connecting security-cleared professionals and employers in a secure and private environment to fill the jobs that safeguard our nation. ClearanceJobs is a DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE:DHX) service.

Media Contact:
Lindy Kyzer
ClearanceJobs
202.374.4291
[email protected]

SOURCE ClearanceJobs.com