In 1988, only 52 percent of federal procurement workers had college degrees and roughly a quarter fell into clerical and assistance positions. Since then, buyers have become much more professionalized. Eight in 10 people hired in the contracting job category in fiscal 2007 had college degrees compared with five in 10 a decade ago. The number of workers in the procurement clerical and assistance category has plummeted from 10,000 in 1988 to less than 2,000 in 2007.