[gonehome]

My (admittedly limited) understanding of why contractors are used instead of government employees is because it's notoriously hard for the government to fire people who aren't good. The premium cost of contractors is worth it when you're able to fire them if they don't meet expectations.

[Zach_the_Lizard]

There are many reasons they use contractors. Here are some of the reasons:

1) The agency in question has a hard cap on the number of employees, but has more work than it can accomplish with just this allowed staff. Contractors are the only option.

2) The government is building something and doesn't need (or thinks it doesn't need) to keep the experts around afterwords. For instance, you're building a bridge and won't need all of the construction workers when it's finished.

3) To get around the broken hiring process

4) To get around the broken union rules

5) To theoretically save money vs. doing it in house