According to a press release issued by the USPTO yesterday (February 1, 2010)  in response to President Obama’s 2011 Budget - USPTO Director David Kappos announced that the USPTO will be hiring 2,000 patent examiners (1,000 in FY 2011 and 1,000 in FY 2012) over the next two years.

These examiners will be “former patent examiners and IP professionals who will require minimal training and can be productive virtually from the start of their employment”.

Read the entire press release at the following link:

http://www.uspto.gov/news/pr/2010/10_07.jsp