The federal government continued to power the
Washington area private sector economy with
purchases of $25.5 billion during 1998. This
was a $3.8 billion increase, the largest one year
gain ever, and a 17.4 percent increase over 1997.
The increase in federal procurement spending
directly added 31,500 full time equivalent private
sector jobs or a major portion of the total
66,100 new jobs added in 1998. The job gain
in 1998 was the largest annual increase of the
decade for the Washington area. Federal purchasing
continued the annual gains begun in
1979 that accumulated a 655 percent increase
over the last 19 years and increased the area's
share of total national federal procurement from
about 4 percent to 12 percent.