OPM officials said the decision to move USAJobs from a private contractor back to the government was done in part because the government was uncomfortable with what it described as "co-mingling" of federal job user records with private sector jobs. He also noted that the decision was made in collaboration with the agencies that use the site.

Agencies typically hire a contractor to manage their job applications, and these contractors post the jobs on USAJobs. What OPM wanted to build was a jobs platform on an "open architecture" with standard security practices -- something that would make it easier for private sector companies to compete on in providing HR services to agencies.

"We have opened this box wide for competition," said Kathy Dillaman, a senior policy advisor at OPM.

Monster transferred to OPM 17 million legacy user accounts, 22 million resumes and over 6,000 job announcements.

Berry said there will be "significantly fewer hires" by the government this year. "Agencies are retrenching," said Berry, "people are facing reductions in their budgets."