It\u2019s graduation season, and while normally that\u2019s a sore point for a government that long struggled to recruit young applicants, new data shows Uncle Sam may be finally getting an edge on Silicon Valley and Wall Street in the competition for talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More students hoping to go into tech are applying to jobs in the government, while traditional tech giants, like software and internet companies, saw their share of applications decrease over the last year. A report from Handshake, an online job board,<\/a> shows that tech majors\u2019 applications submitted to government employers more than doubled between 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, the share submitted to tech companies fell six percentage points in that same timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTech has been one of the most attractive industries for new grads over the past [10 plus] years, while government employers have had a harder time attracting early talent,\u201d said Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at Handshake, in an email. \u201cSo to see tech losing its share of applications while the government experiences gains is a fundamental shift, and we believe both are related to underlying changes in what early talent is looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t