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OPM.gov / News / Speeches & Remarks
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Statement of OPM Director John Berry

Current Status of USAJOBS

October 19, 2011

Eight days ago, we launched the new USAJOBS 3.0. This is the result of an 18-month collaborative project with the CHCO Council to build a new site that will help us better fill the needs of our applicants and our agencies.

It is a highly complex project; the site serves millions of Americans and ties into many different back-end IT systems - each agency has its own. As with any project of this magnitude, there have been problems to iron out. Let me explain briefly what they are, and how we're fixing them:

First, there's a lot of interest in the new site. During the last eight days, traffic has greatly exceeded previously reported volumes. To address this demand, we are adding additional server capacity to support this extremely high volume.

As we work to increase capacity, we're serving the maximum number of users we can. While the number of people trying to use the system fluctuates from hour to hour, we're consistently serving at least 94% of them. The others get a message explaining that the site is busy and asking them to return in a few minutes.

We're getting feedback from users about what's working and what isn't. User feedback was essential to designing the upgrade, and it's been essential to identifying issues over the last eight days. We are reading everything that users are posting to the USAJOBS Facebook and Twitter accounts, answering the most common questions, and resolving individual issues as well.

On Monday, we passed an important milestone: over 100,000 applications submitted through the new system. To be exact, as of 4pm yesterday, Americans have submitted 141,289 applications for Federal jobs through the new USAJOBS. So we know the system is working for a lot of people.

But I also know that's cold comfort for those whose applications aren't getting through. That's why we're working with the CHCOs to extend non-emergency job openings for three weeks.

We're thrilled that so many Americans are interested and enthusiastic about public service, and we're gonna keep working until we get this right.

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