WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- With thousands of Americans looking for jobs , many businesses are saying : Sorry , we 're not hiring . The Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending out another message : Come right this way . Donna Gil Lumpkin is one of 270,000 people who has applied for about 2,100 jobs at the FBI . After years of being outgunned in the battle for job applicants by corporations who could pay bigger salaries , hundreds of thousands of job seekers are applying for FBI positions . The FBI announced a hiring blitz in January to fill more than 2,100 professional staff positions . The job postings run the gamut from scientists to accountants to auto mechanics . In addition , the bureau said it wants to hire 850 FBI agents . What happened next caught many at the FBI by surprise . More than 270,000 people applied over about six weeks . The FBI said about 70,000 people seek positions in a normal year . Watch the applications pile up at the FBI » . But this is n't a normal year . Just ask Donna Gil Lumpkin , a divorced mother of two who lives in Maryland . Gil Lumpkin lost her job selling radio ad time in November . `` The competition is really stiff , '' she said . `` There 's a lot of people out of work . A lot of people looking for a job . '' Gil Lumpkin has applied for a job as an FBI recruiter . If the FBI thinks she has the skills for the post , that 's just one step toward a job . She 'll have to undergo an FBI background check and take polygraph and drug tests . The FBI official in charge of human resources concedes the FBI is benefiting a bit from the sour economy and getting a flood of applications this year . `` In years past it was often difficult to find people with the science and technology background or chemistry background or a biology background because we were competing with the private sector , '' said FBI Assistant Director John Raucci . Raucci said during the dotcom explosion , the FBI had a difficult time competing with dotcom start-up salaries . `` Now , what we offer is stability , we offer a job and I think a very exciting environment in which to work , '' said Raucci . Raucci said the average starting salary at the FBI is about $ 35,000 per year . But he adds those with extraordinary academic credentials and prior job experience start at a much higher rate . Donna Gil Lumpkin said the stability of a job with the federal government and the good benefits such as health insurance attracted her to apply . `` In this tough economic climate right now the federal government , I think , is one of the most steady and stable places anyone could be . '' The stakes are high for Gil Lumpkin , who has a 12-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son . She said her children are covered under her ex-husband 's health insurance . But she needs coverage for herself . And she is not able to put any money away right now for her children 's college years . `` Right now the college fund is on pause , '' said Gil Lumpkin . `` It 's the survival fund . We are trying to survive . ''
Hundreds of thousands of job applicants are applying for FBI positions . Average starting salary at the FBI is about $ 500 per year . FBI no longer has same level of competition from private sector . FBI has salaries for agents , but also for those in various support roles .