I work in consulting, almost entirely for federal and state government. Here that number is low single digits.

This is what I think most people fail to understand. It's not a _requirement_. The vast majority of people DON'T have side projects. Companies can't afford to simply auto-reject everyone who doesn't have side projects. The point is that if you do have any, it can help make you stand out dramatically.

That's a surprising number. Did you interview mostly recent grads?

Not surprising at all. None of my colleagues have anything public. If that's not your thing I struggle to understand why should you.

And most of my work mates have public open source code.

I would guess the environment candidates are selected from influences these numbers significantly.

And you're right, I'd understand that in some of these environments, OSS isn't necessarily considered fun or relevant.

Then again it's all speculation.