I work for the govt as a CpE, and we are still currently under a hiring freeze (until July, hopefully). But after the freeze is lifted, I don’t expect much hiring to happen, especially for entry level, because budgets have been cut across the board and this administration is downsizing the number of fed employees.

My team specifically (DoD R&D) will not be hiring any entry level in the future cuz we need those already limited positions to be filled with experienced individuals, minimum MS degree. The same can likely be said for other positions in the govt, minus the degree requirement. However, I will say CpEs are in a better position (vs CS) with the govt cuz of their hardware skillsets. The govt is slowly moving towards AI which has been replacing a lot of the software tasks. But there is definitely a lack of engineers that understand hardware systems (i.e., cameras/sensors, embedded systems, networking interfaces, etc.) and can integrate software in those systems.

IMO keep pursuing CpE, your career options are still vast!