Maybe I'm missing the point and they're far enough apart to not be connected, but if we've now determined these are government jobs isn't this partially by design?
There is a nationwide desire and movement to specifically reduce the both the number of government jobs and the spending on government jobs right now, so why would it be surprising that there is a stall in hiring in government jobs and an inability to provide the market salary demands?
I've been following along with the thread today, but have been car shopping, so I've been distracted.
There is the government job side that I'm on and deal with the crazy bureaucracy that is the federal workforce. Totally understand the not wanting to climb the ladder at some points. The next level up for me comes with having to be on call 24-7. 10%+ pay bump, but I think I'll lose peace at home.
Some of the confusion that I didn't spell out well is that my organization is a military DOD and we hire manpower (contractors) through defense contracting companies manpower divisions. Our organization's workforce is roughly 40% military, 20% federal civilians and 40% contractors. I'm a federal civilian in charge of hiring and training.
The way contact manpower works, we write a position description request that outlines the manpower required and number of positions that need to be filled. All the defense contractors review the request and submit their proposals for what they will take through job for. The government likes selecting the lowest bidder on these manpower style contracts. Ultimately that is what got us to where we are today. We're halfway through a contact that is below market rates)
The contractors that work for us come into our spaces every day, but are employees of their company (an example would be L3). Their companies negotiate rates and benefits with the employees. The government has no say in these communications.
Retaining people gets hard because these contractors have 2 bosses at time. Government supervision and contact leadership/HR. Employees can be unhappy with one or the other or even both.
All that said, the contract is under staffed and only looks to be getting worse. My organization still has a requirement to the DoD and the American people. I'm becoming the person who has to figure out how to mend this manpower issue. We say it's a "no-fail" mission, but can only replace the contract after it fails. Hence the situation and trying to get creative to solve it.