In 1988, only 52 percent of federal procurement workers had college
degrees and roughly a quarter fell into clerical and assistance
positions.
Since then, buyers have become much more professionalized. Eight in 10
people hired in the contracting job category in fiscal 2007 had college
degrees
compared with five in 10 a decade ago. The number of workers in the
procurement clerical and assistance category has plummeted from 10,000
in 1988 to
less than 2,000 in 2007.