Washington, D.C. - Over 31 million users have visited the new U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) USAJOBS website since its launch in August and over 3.8 million visits were logged by job seekers in the first 19 days of 2004 according to OPM Director Kay Coles James. This is in comparison to a monthly average of 771,183 visitors over the ten-month period before website enhancements were made last August. In addition, over 313 million website pages have been viewed and almost 308 thousand online resumes have been created and posted on the website.

"In August, we increased the capacity of online resumes to 5 per job seeker," remarked James. "We also added an element specifically for veterans. It features information on veterans' preference in the federal government, news, and other pertinent information for veterans seeking jobs in the civil service. The website also has been enhanced to enable users to make resumes searchable by agency recruiters and allow job seekers to create and save application letters. We added these features based on feedback from website users, and we continue to encourage users to send us suggestions on improving the website."

More recently, OPM rolled-out powerful new designs for the USAJOBS and Student Jobs websites delivering improved graphics, search pages, and site maps. Key elements of the new designs include prominent placement of the Job Search and Create Resume buttons to draw users to action; highlighted placement of key government-wide recruitment initiatives including veterans' hiring, nationwide job fairs, and e-Scholar; spell-checking in the resume builder; tabbed specialized search options on the Job Search page; and site maps to offer an additional navigational aid. Many of the changes were implemented as a direct result of user feedback.

"We wanted to create a website tool that was easier to use and would attract people looking for careers in the federal government," James said.

"We closely monitor job seekers' satisfaction using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), and last December reached an all-time high score of 75. The feedback we receive is invaluable because it assists us in making future improvements."

The enhanced USAJOBS website, www.usajobs.gov, is one of many initiatives developed to attract the best and brightest to the federal work force. Part of President Bush's Management Agenda e-Government initiative - Recruitment One-Stop - USAJOBS consolidates federal jobs in one place, allowing users to spend more time applying for jobs rather than just trying to locate them.