The federal government must do a better job of recruiting college students if it is to attract the talented employees who will be needed to replace the hundreds of thousands of workers from the baby-boom generation who are nearing retirement, according to a report released this afternoon by the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington-based nonprofit group.

Partnership officials said that the report, “Back to School: Rethinking Federal Recruiting on College Campuses,” revealed that students were eager to learn more about federal job opportunities but that they lacked information about them. A survey of more than 3,000 college juniors and seniors that was conducted for the report found that 42 percent said they were “extremely or very interested” in working for the federal government. But only 13 percent said that they were “extremely or very knowledgeable” about job opportunities in that sector.

“In order to fulfill the promise of American democracy, we need to re-establish the federal government as an employer of choice for our country’s talented young college graduates,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for Public Service.

The report echoes an earlier effort by the same group (The Chronicle, April 23, 2002).