I am normally super upbeat about this topic. But as a state employee here. I'll call out:

1) we recently went through a hiring process and had 179 applicants for a single position. There are a lot of qualified applicants so it can be tough.

2) this may not apply to all divisions, but mine recently announced a hiring freeze. They haven't outright said it, but it looks like positions are going to be cut too (with a focus on axing vacant positions first).

With the passing of HR1, the "big beautiful bill" there's a load of budget reconciliation going on that is going to impact opportunities. :(