Barack Obama's election has triggered an avalanche of job seekers trying to land a position in the new administration.
According to The New York Times, about 300,000 people have applied for the 3,300 open positions so far. That compares to about 44,000 job hopefuls at the same point before President George W. Bush took office in 2001. That figure eventually swelled to about 90,000. The paper said Richard Nixon had the opposite problem: His transition team was so worried about a dearth of applicants that it actually sent out more than 70,000 letters in an effort to find appointees.
The historic nature of Obama's election, combined with Democrats being shut out of the White House for eight years and a tough employment environment across the country, are the biggest factors driving the résumé surge. On Friday, the Labor Department announced that employers cut 533,000 jobs in November -- the most in 34 years
“It’s hard to find a parallel in modern times to this degree of enthusiasm for going into government,” said presidential historian Michael R. Beschloss.
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