Washington, D.C. - In the first week, the new link from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's USAJOBS website to the Support Our Friends in Iraq and Afghanistan (SOFIA) Department of Defense website has attracted over 37,000 hits making it the 10th most visited page on the usajobs.gov website, according to OPM Director Kay Coles James. This significant number of hits follows the recent addition of the DoD SOFIA link on the powerful OPM USAJOBS website to assist with the efforts of the Department of Defense (DoD) to recruit Americans interested in serving their Nation in reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"OPM is committed to doing everything possible to assist in the development of Iraq and Afghanistan by partnering with key agencies such as DoD to provide the much needed assistance in these developing democracies," said OPM Director Kay Coles James. "The USAJOBs website with a prominent SOFIA link is uniquely positioned to recruit a vast number of qualified Americans who are ready to compete for and accept the opportunity to serve their nation abroad."

During the first week of the collaboration of the OPM and DoD recruitment websites, USAJOBS and SOFIA (Support our Friends in Iraq and Afghanistan) respectively, outstanding results were seen with an increase to almost 24,000 visitors on the SOFIA page compared to previous weekly averages on SOFIA of 3000 to 6000 prior to the link joining USAJOBS.

The USAJOBS/SOFIA linkage, designed to leverage the recruiting powers of both websites to fill critical specialized vacancies in Iraq and Afghanistan, became active with a prominent SOFIA link being placed on the USAJOBS website on Monday, February 2. Since its revamp in August, the USAJOBS site has reported over 30 million unique visitors, 36 million visits, 352 million page views, 352 million hits. In addition, individuals created more than 347,000 online resumes. The link connects these job seekers from usajobs.gov to SOFIA, the DoD website established in 2003 to hire exceptional temporary federal employees to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority to assist in the rebuilding of the two developing nations.

The USAJOBS/SOFIA linkage found on 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.

Our mission is to ensure the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce. OPM supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.