Where do today’s college students plan to work after graduation and what do they want from an employer when they enter the workforce? The Partnership for Public Service analyzed the results of the 2011 National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Student Survey of 35,401 students from 599 colleges and universities from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The results are both alarming and replete with challenges for federal hiring managers and human resources professionals who are charged with attracting a new generation of skilled employees to our government. Most startling was a finding that just 6 percent of the college students who were surveyed plan to work in government at the local, state or federal level, the lowest number expressing an intention to join the public sector since the NACE survey first asked the question in 2008.

The survey for the first time in 2011 asked specifically about federal employment aspirations, with only 2.3 percent of the respondents reporting that they plan to work for the U.S. government.