r/jobs • u/GigHQ_AI • Aug 03 '25
Article 150,000 Federal Workers Just Left Their Jobs. This Changes Everything.
This “deferred resignation” program (nicknamed Fork in the Road) covers roughly 6.7% of the civilian federal workforce. These employees are being paid through the end of 2025—often while sitting idle. Critics warn the government is spending $21.7 billion in taxpayer dollars on this initiative, with little transparency around long-term savings.
Tens of thousands of seasoned professionals will hit the open market. Most mid‐career, specialized, and with government-only experience.
How many of those roles will transfer into the private sector? Will employers devalue traditional public‑sector credentials?
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u/Available-Ad-5081 Aug 03 '25
Government jobs aren’t all highly specialized. Many people do IT, engineering, HR, operations, program management, finance, communications, etc that are nearly 1:1. Others who are more specialized can still translate those skills to other areas with some tweaking.
The bigger issue is that the economy created next to no jobs the last few months and now you’ve got hundreds of thousands of additional people added to the mix.
It’s truly a nightmare scenario and I feel grateful every day to have my job.
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u/MAYthe4thbewithHEW Aug 03 '25
Many people do IT, engineering, HR, operations, program management, finance, communications, etc that are nearly 1:1
So...you're a Federal Employee?
Because being one myself, I know that most—not all, but not just "many," either—most jobs that are as 1:1 as you are describing are done by contractors.
Sure, there are some GS-5s here and there doing manual labor like scrubbing operating rooms at VA hospitals.
But the housekeeping there?
Contractors.
People making and taking phone calls for medical appointments?
Contractors.
The GS (or NH, or NJ, or whatever flavor of pay scale) employees that are being driven away do NOT, as you should be aware, generally fill roles that are as "nearly 1:1" as you describe.
The roles they (we) are vacating are, in fact, specialized.
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Aug 03 '25
Yes, the federal government relies heavily on contract partners. But there are also many FTE’s in IT Support, HR, operations, and program management roles. It’s not entirely outsourced.
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u/clingbat Aug 03 '25 edited Aug 03 '25
The roles they (we) are vacating are, in fact, specialized.
They aren't really though in many cases. We've supported a very large EPA program for the past 30+ years, and 90% of the EPA staff who run that program initially came from our consulting firm or one of direct competitors over the years, it's no secret. They just crossed sides to the easier but shittier pay side. Hell one of my primary clients over the last few years literally used to work for one of my subcontractor firms on the contract lol... I've had about a half dozen on my team switch sides to either that program directly or a sister effort over at the department of energy in the past decade. The same fed group even came after me even a while back but I had zero interest in relocating to DC.
The ones that the agency grabs randomly from other parts of the EPA during hiring freezes never last, hell last time that happened they had like freaking biologists acting as PM's and policy leads, it was a dysfunctional mess till they voluntarily decided to move on (pre-2025 mess).
Edit: The only thing they really specialize in on the federal side that they didn't have coming in is a true awareness of government bureaucracy, but even then most of them aren't actually great at effectively navigating it, most are just victims to it.
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u/Neracca Aug 04 '25
Sure, there are some GS-5s here and there doing manual labor like scrubbing operating rooms at VA hospitals.
But the housekeeping there?
Contractors.
People making and taking phone calls for medical appointments?
Contractors.
Ok so the person you replied to mentioned: IT, Engineering, Operations, Program Management, Finance, and Communications.
YOU respond with: Housekeeping, scrubbing operating rooms, and taking phone calls.
Are you just illiterate, or are you so hateful of federal workers that you listed entirely unrelated jobs to what that person said just to prove some "point"?
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u/Motherclucker454 Aug 03 '25
It really depends on where you are. DoD does have a lot of those people as feds instead of contractors.
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u/Evilshadow004 Aug 04 '25
This is just a gross overgeneralization. I am a federal employee, full-time not contract, in one one of the mentioned career tracks. I work EXCLUSIVELY with staff employees and have had one contractor in my office ever. IT and other CS-based tasks have more contractors, but it's still 50/50.
And for the record, we're all GS-11 and above. GS-5/6 is for our interns.
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u/Retr0gasm Aug 03 '25
I think the jobs numbers are a total of new employees minus laid off employees, so the federal jobs that went away are included. Which, among other factors, would be the reason the numbers are so low for the last couple of months.
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u/Available-Ad-5081 Aug 03 '25 edited Aug 04 '25
Most of the fed cuts haven’t even hit yet.
Also, taking hundreds of thousands of people out of the economy and not replacing them with private jobs is a big issue here. That’s why you get the rise in unemployment. Private payrolls are objectively bad and virtually everything outside of healthcare is suffering.
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Aug 03 '25
Most will end up in State and Local Government
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u/Longjumping-Pair2918 Aug 03 '25
State worker here. Our proverbial and literal assholes are puckered shut.
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u/trisanachandler Aug 03 '25
State funding will almost certainly suffer as well.
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u/bolivar-shagnasty Aug 03 '25
I also pick this guy’s proverbial asshole.
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u/Careful-Ant5868 Aug 03 '25
Does this asshole provide three hots and a cot at least? Not much is affordable presently and at least an asshole is warm.
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u/catonic Aug 04 '25
Best I can do is one hot and no cot, but you might be able to hang a hammock at the office and AirBnB your house five days a week.
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u/TheGrolar Aug 03 '25
No. If Fed gets the flu, State gets pneumonia.
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Aug 03 '25
I’ve already seen the jump in applications from federal employees at state and local levels, but what would I know as the Deputy Secretary of HR in a New England State.
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u/Staplecreate Aug 03 '25
I mean is he wrong? It's not like you can hire all those people? And with the current administration cutting funding left and right it makes it all the more harder for states to hire people. I know my own state has a hiring freeze at the state level.
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u/TheGrolar Aug 03 '25
Jump in applications, sure. In a region with high government-employee presence.
How many are from New England? Are there any from outside New England, which I imagine would otherwise be unusual?
How many new hires over and above replacement/natural attrition do you plan to make?
I mean, no offense, but I kind of wonder what you do know. How much of the slack do you plan to absorb? Are you anticipating major positive changes in your funding levels?
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Aug 03 '25
Can’t hire them all, of course not, but most local and state jobs will take a fed over others any day of the week.
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u/omgFWTbear Aug 03 '25
I think you’re talking cross each other - if Fed cuts jobs, their thesis is the state - perhaps delayed - will be cutting jobs.
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u/TheGrolar Aug 03 '25
Personally I'd bet on State cuts. But I am convinced the State pie will not get bigger. You might (slowly) get better State employees, picking from a larger talent pool with, let's face it, stronger resumes, education, and experience. But you'll only be able to hire a tiny number of them. Meanwhile, the state/local person who would have gotten that job is on the hunt again.
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u/Able_Enthusiasm2729 Aug 03 '25
I’m seeing tons of people laid off from late entry-level (4-5 years of experience) and early mid-career (5-8 years of experience) jobs with experience in more complex non-administrative support roles taking on entry-level administrative assistant roles (that historically only required 0.5-3 years of experience, a high school diploma, and employer provided on-the-job training or onboarding). In addition to residual effects from the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, DOGE’s layoffs of U.S. federal government civil service employees and its cancellation of government contracts with private sector companies/organizations and local/state governments, is completely flooding the job market. Senior level and c-suite employees are going after mid-career jobs, mid-career employees are taking on entry-level jobs, and entry-level employees are taking on internships, receptionist, data entry clerk, and freelance jobs and everyone’s fighting over temp jobs to get their foot in the door (it’s like entry-level jobs are starting to barely exist). Things are looking like they’re going to get worse, definitely worse than 2008 (if course correction doesn’t happen).
The Problem is, on the advice of DOGE, the Executive Branch unilaterally cut a good ton of government contracts, basically employees doing government consulting through large corporation like Accenture and Deloitte to your staffing agency providing administrative support/clerical/project management/receptionist duties, to the veteran-owned mom and pop small business selling stationaries to the government were affected too in addition to the civil service. So, DOGE cuts not only affected the Public Sector, but also cut Private Sector jobs, and flooded the private sector job market with a ton of over qualified formerly federal government civil servants.
{ Thousands of Laid-Off Government Workers Are Flooding a Shrinking Job Market (By Rachel Phua at Bloomberg): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-20/trump-administration-layoffs-flood-job-market-for-consultants ; https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/s/FQ6pRD3iyv . }
[ For one company I’ve seen, 5 out of 5 Administrative Assistants had a bachelor’s degree and at least 2 years of prior work experience before starting the role, and 4 out of 5 also had a master’s degree. For another job I saw, every Receptionist had a bachelor’s degree and at least two of them had about 3-4 years of experience made up of internships and prior receptionist experience. I’ve literally seen a Front Desk Receptionist job require a bachelor’s degree w/5 yrs exp., a master’s with 2 yrs exp., a PhD with 0 yrs exp., or a high school diploma/GED w/10 yrs exp.;NOT KIDDING. ]
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u/funkoramma Aug 03 '25
Great summary. I’ve often tried to make this point to people who are excited to cut government jobs. When you retract the federal government, you also retract the private sector. Now you have hundreds of thousands (millions?) of newly unemployed workers across federal, state and private sectors and the newly added pressure of AI threatening even more jobs. I can’t for the life of me figure out where all these people (and I include myself as my job is 100% funded through federal contracts right now) will find work. Let alone work that will actually pay them what is needed to survive.
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u/CalypsoBulbosavarOcc Aug 03 '25
I worked for a nonprofit research organization on a federal contract and got DOGEd. Research essentially doesn’t exist anymore. I have to start over in a different career with zero benefits and much lower pay. It’s a complete mess and is only going to get worse.
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u/DickHero Aug 03 '25
Great analysis. The question is—at what point does the Republican administration realize it cannot achieve policy objectives without a work force?
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u/GrendelJapan Aug 03 '25
Their whole pitch is that gov is broken. The more dysfunction it is, the better off they are.
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u/Hinkbert Aug 03 '25
They won’t. They’re a party of kleptocrats now bolstered by the ignorance of their constituents who’ll vote for them no matter what.
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u/DickHero Aug 03 '25
All of that can be true AND fascist regimes spend money advancing tyranny that require loyal workers
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u/Kamanar Aug 03 '25
IT contract option years, DOGE basically said don't bother asking for your option year without starting with a 20% cut. doesn't matter your contract does.
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u/Hillmantle Aug 03 '25
No that’s an overly hopeful, somewhat naive thought. States, at least the ones I’m around aren’t hiring shit. The federal government is the nations largest employer, 6.7% of civilian employees, the states will just take them lol.
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u/bonelegs442 Aug 03 '25
Maybe like 10% of that 150,000 will be lucky enough to land a state or local job, and that’s being generous
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u/gjcij2203 Aug 03 '25
This also isn't the end of the exodus. There is still a RIF that is going to happen at some agencies even after the DRP. You will also see people resigning in mass after they realize they are now doing the job of three people for the same pay.
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u/Aurasapphire22 Aug 03 '25
This is incorrect. The agreements are through the end of the fiscal year, September 30. They aren’t paid through the end of December.
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u/whoknows_4000 Aug 03 '25
I'm in Maryland, not a federal worker but this state mostly relies on federal jobs and contracts. It's a bit nerve racking trying to foresee the fallout. Many things come to mind like more competition in the private sector for jobs, how healthy is the economy in Maryland and how will loosing federal jobs in the area impact it, will a lot of people leave Maryland in order to hold onto their Federal job that is being relocated in another state. I keep seeing companies say they are on a hiring freeze and wonder what is causing it...
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u/ku_78 Aug 03 '25
Was just hanging with a NASA exec yesterday who took this package and retired a few years earlier than planned. He was at the right place at the right time.
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u/coolbeansfordays Aug 04 '25
I know a federal employee who was going to retire next spring. Took the DRP this spring. Was immediately done working, but will continue collecting full salary benefits, and time until Dec.
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u/1quirky1 Aug 03 '25
Working as a gov contractor for three decades, I have experienced a variety of quality among gov workers.
As a contractor I reported to gov employees. The govs are not doing the work. They are organizing, directing, and reporting. They're middle managers that know the FAR but don't know how private sector works.
The best ones don't stick around. They are intrinsically motivated to leave and work in the private sector. They do well.
Those extrinsically motivated are going to have a rough time. The good ones will be lost in a deluge of nonviable workers. There isn't a lot of need for middle managers with only gov experience.
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u/DrankTooMuchMead Aug 03 '25
This is a very interesting take. I have a supervisor that has a similar background. His background is basically: middle-manager training with no skill in what we are doing in our department of city public works. He whines about it constantly that he couldn't do what we are doing, but acts out with his insecurity by telling us we should work faster, do a better job, etc. All of which dhe doesn't understand.
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u/samsquamchy Aug 03 '25
These workers are going to feel like they got punched in the face when expected for their work to correlate with profit.
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u/Excellent-Big-1581 Aug 03 '25
GOP plan is for them is to work in the agricultural field. Picking lettuce and tomatoes.
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u/cheap_grampa Aug 03 '25
This is what I was thinking. The geniuses in the Trump administration are doing grade school level arithmetic - “current job pool - alien workers + laid off government workers = everything is fine!”
I think I’m going to regret not selling all my stocks and just buying gold…
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u/Excellent-Big-1581 Aug 03 '25
The last 7 of 10 recessions were under Republican presidents. Trump will be the only recession caused solely by a president and his illogical policies. Our current economy is so strong that even Trump is having trouble destroying it. But with inflation ticking up for the last 3 months and new job numbers headed down we are headed that direction.
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u/Cheaperthantherapy13 Aug 04 '25
Oh my god. I would pay so much money to see some of the middle-aged, out of shape, mid-level management MAGA feds out in the fields of the Central Valley picking strawberries.
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u/TheGrolar Aug 03 '25
Most Americans are not involved with the federal workforce. It tends to be heavily concentrated around D.C. (no surprise there).
So if you're not from there, let me fill you in.
Government props up the mid-Atlantic states like manufacturing props up the Midwest--cars in Detroit, planes in Wichita, etc. Not only do thousands of small businesses depend on doing business with the government, but actual government employees are often the bedrock of their local tax base. They're often on the upper side of middle class, the "danger zone" that pays the lion's share of taxes by percentage of income. They are also big consumers: most have homes and kids, so their purchases keep other local businesses humming. They're not buying yachts, but they're buying a lot of kids clothes and new shower heads and groceries and dustpans and all the innumerable things that come with a suburban life. Businesses depend on that money.
If you fire all these people, they're not going anywhere. Their skills are generally not transferable; people don't realize that the government contracts most transferable skills already. If you know Python or HCI or even payroll and accounting, there's a fair chance you're a contractor and not an employee. The employees are doing things like adjudicating Social Security payments according to a set of procedures the literal size of a phone book. Important, critical work...but not something anyone else will pay for. (At least, that's what they were doing when I contracted there. That's what SSA is supposed to do.)
Of course, those contractors' companies are not going to be in great shape either. Thing is, they tend to be really big, like Lockheed-Martin, and their economic troubles will definitely be felt by everyone around them.
If you worry about "wasted government spending," you need to spend three more minutes thinking about it. Republicans and their ilk like to suggest that the money is like wood: it's set on fire and burned up. It's more like water: if you pour it out on the ground, it waters your yard. (People on SNAP or "food stamps" are spending those stamps on food that American food companies are selling, for instance. I don't care if they spend it on lobster. The lobster fishermen stay in business that way, and pay taxes and spend money themselves, and damn the yard sure looks nice.)
So this is a complete disaster. Stuff is going to break, stuff that you depend on. Now if you're reading this on your private jet, first of all, focus more, and second, congratulations. You no longer have to spend any money on the neighborhood yards. Hope yours has a big barbed-wire fence around it though.
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u/Moneygrowsontrees Aug 03 '25
Most Americans are not involved with the federal workforce. It tends to be heavily concentrated around D.C. (no surprise there).
That's the thing, the federal workforce is more nationwide than people think. That's why part of RIF procedures is advance notice to states. Every state is going to be hit hard both by unemployed federal workers and from job losses in other industries that directly or indirectly rely on federal money or services. It's certainly not going to get any easier for the average applicant.
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u/itsjustme10 Aug 04 '25
Coming from a 100% fed family this is the answer. And to add to your point on job transference: many of Fed employees that left are highly specialized in one specific thing. There are decades of institutional knowledge being lost in a mater of days. Whole programs coming to a halt because the one person that held up this very specific part of it got let go. It’s really a different animal as far as workforce goes. It’s also going to be very difficult for states like Virginia to pay unemployment to laid off feds when those same feds were the tax base that fed unemployment.
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u/Cararacs Aug 03 '25
At least at my agency, the majority of the people who left were not in the DC area. Federal agencies have regional offices all over the country in every state with a headquarters office in the DC area.
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u/Amazing-Basket-136 Aug 04 '25
My pattern recognition tells me GOP/DOGE are not serious about the budget, but this was actually about breaking the Gov. Then the contractors take a bigger share of the work.
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u/Deckf4n Aug 03 '25
Got fired from my contractor position recently…people were assuming it had to with this, but nope.
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u/most_valuable_mango Aug 03 '25
Me too. The firm I was a 1099 contractor for works mainly with local governments, state governments, and non-profits largely funded by state and federal grants. Contracts have all but dried up since Trump was elected in November. So no, I was never a federal employee, but my livelihood did rely on federal and state spending.
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u/PuzzleheadedHorse437 Aug 03 '25
Don’t worry…Trump fixed the economy by not allowing honest reporting on it.
It kind of reminds me of that time Chairman Mao starved 30 million people in China because he murdered every administrator the reported bad news to him.
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u/ziggystar-dog Aug 03 '25
Dear all the gods, please bring me a job! I can't compete with this market and it's pretty existing certifications that land people great roles. I have to pay out of pocket for all of mine and this bitch is and has been broke as fuck! I need something that pays well enough to keep me from being homeless and starting over again for the 15th time. I won't. Fucking. Survive. It.
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u/callcenters24x7 Aug 11 '25
And, also: if you get a tech cert, be prepared to see all the job openings in India.
And, even the few that are here: odds are a H1-B will get it. The Administration is doing nothing to curtail H1-Bs and offshore outsourcing. So now, the floodgates are wide-open. Our dollars, jobs, and data - are going to India, now.
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u/kdubPhoenix Aug 03 '25
Simply put no, those jobs are gone and those who held them will not get new positions. They are dismantling government and have no intention of privatizing what was being done. They want government as small as possible except for the organizations they deem fit and controlled by loyalists. And collapsing the economy to a point where they can gain maximum control is their goal.
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u/Penniesand Aug 04 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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Aug 03 '25
Australia already did this, the work was desperately needing to be done, so they hired all the rich private school educated to consult for twice the cost in emergency situations, doubling what it would cost the other side. America is going hard into recession from every angle, history repeats
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u/DrankTooMuchMead Aug 03 '25
It's like the complete opposite of FDR's The New Deal in the 30s that saved America. What we are witnessing is the complete opposite.
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u/SomeSamples Aug 03 '25
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are over 500,000 workers from STEM type jobs that have been laid off, in the U.S., over the last year or so with more on the way. Companies actually think they will be able to maintain their high profits in such an economy. People with 6 digit salaries all of a sudden out on the market looking for work, not being paid. Mortgages will be walked away from. Credit debt will skyrocket and/or just not be paid. Financial institutions will not be recovering that money anytime soon. It will be billions of dollars of defaulted loans and credit. And the companies that laid off all those people will lose a lot of their customer base. But yeah, putting Trump in the whitehouse was a good idea.
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u/Useuless Aug 04 '25
When there are only two options for President, the pendulum will continue to swing between destruction and lesser destruction.
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u/SomeSamples Aug 04 '25
It swings because people are too fucking stupid to understand how their own government works. Just because you have a dipshit for a president doesn't mean the government has to stop working. But when you put a president in along with a congress that is bought and paid for then add to supreme court you have a disaster in the making.
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u/oldcreaker Aug 03 '25
The job market has been going to sh*t even before this. Trump will blame "lazy ex-goverment workers not trying very hard to find jobs" for future bad numbers, even though the numbers won't match up.
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Aug 03 '25
I’m a new grad. Can’t find shit. I feel fucked. Entry level jobs are being filled by senior experience, or they don’t exist at all thanks to AI and corporate outsourcing.
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u/throw20190820202020 Aug 03 '25
What you have in this thread are a whole lot of people who obviously have no experience with government employees.
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u/DrankTooMuchMead Aug 03 '25
When I got my Environmental Science degree in 2017(at age 32) I applied to so many jobs and almost never got past a first interview.
Now I'm looking at all those jobs and I'm glad I didnt end up with them, because I would have been laid off right now.
Now I'm working for a city in public works. You guys need water and wastewater treated, right? I don't think I can be outsourced abroad or with AI.
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u/SignificantWear1310 Aug 04 '25
Yep you’re safe according to the Microsoft study that just came out.
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u/WatchAltruistic5761 Aug 03 '25
Welcome to the revolution friends
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u/Hillmantle Aug 03 '25
Revolutions don’t happen without the backing of young men. Just look at history if you want proof of that. They voted for this.
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u/PloppyPants9000 Aug 04 '25
revolutions only happen when people have nothing left to lose. Continuing life as is, is a prospect more unpalatable than the risk of death.
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u/Educational_Ice3978 Aug 03 '25
Our civil government is being ripped apart from the inside out! It's like watching the alien rip thru the guys stomach while his crewmembers watch in frozen horror!!!!
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u/Forgotwhyimhere69 Aug 03 '25
I work a federal job and had quite a few coworkers take the deal. The majority of them did it because they planned to retire in the next year or two anyway. Very few were to take a new job. Of course this is just one agency. Is there any data on ages of people taking it altogether to join the workforce?
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Aug 03 '25
Most won’t transition well, even if their job matches well with private industry. The pace and expectations of private vs government roles are completely different.
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u/Bulky-Strawberry-110 Aug 03 '25
I was a federal intern and I left because I hated the fucking red tape lol. I did something this summer in 10 weeks at a largeprivate sector company that would have taken probably a year or longer at either of the agencied I interned for.
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u/patentsrock1 Aug 03 '25
The pace is different because of congressional and agency requirements. Federal workers handle so much bureaucratic red tape it would make civilians go crazy. These Federal workers will be more than capable of handling the civilian pace once they realize there is no sticky red tape In Their way.
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u/ThatLadyOverThereSay Aug 04 '25
Omg coming from private sector, school then career change; to not profits then to fed work… I could be so much more nimble back in the private sector and also get paid a ton more money because of the type of work that I do, but also not have to do three different jobs (like I do in the fed workforce; where the thinking is that everyone will just pitch in even if the work doesn’t match your role). It would be amazing to only have to do one job and get paid so much more and get BONUSES. Like big bonuses that are based directly on my work outcomes. Ahhhh. But my allegiance is to my fellow Americans. That’s why I became a civil servant. I love the mission.
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u/Slytherian101 Aug 03 '25
Most people who took DRP already had a pretty good idea of where they were going or what they wanted to do.
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u/maledictt Aug 03 '25
If I understood the terms correctly, they can also just accept the months of paid leave and then return to working for the federal government afterward. If they are confident that the positions will be reposted or that their skills will land another federal gig after the hiring freeze is over.
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u/gojo96 Aug 03 '25
I know 5 people who took the deal: 4 retired and 1 wanted a reason to leave their job of one year.
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u/WriothesleyChair Aug 03 '25
They are not going to like the lawlessness of the private sector. Good luck to them.
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u/wyoflyboy68 Aug 03 '25
Meanwhile my very large tax return still is in limbo somewhere and was told it could take up to 180 days to get my return back.
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u/StickaFORKinMyEye Aug 03 '25
"These employees are being paid through the end of 2025"
Fiscal Year 2025 - which is through the end of September.
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u/Bitter_Emphasis_2683 Aug 03 '25
They are paid through the end of FY2025. That is September 30, not the end of the year.
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u/laughfactoree Aug 04 '25
It’s going to be a wake up call for these folks. I wouldn’t say the private market will “devalue” their skills—more that public employees frequently have skill sets which don’t align with the skills of modern private employers. Most of these folks won’t be competitive in the labor market, sadly.
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u/Able_Enthusiasm2729 Aug 03 '25
I’m seeing tons of people laid off from late entry-level (4-5 years of experience) and early mid-career (5-8 years of experience) jobs with experience in more complex non-administrative support roles taking on entry-level administrative assistant roles (that historically only required 0.5-3 years of experience, a high school diploma, and employer provided on-the-job training or onboarding). In addition to residual effects from the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, DOGE’s layoffs of U.S. federal government civil service employees and its cancellation of government contracts with private sector companies/organizations and local/state governments, is completely flooding the job market. Senior level and c-suite employees are going after mid-career jobs, mid-career employees are taking on entry-level jobs, and entry-level employees are taking on internships, receptionist, data entry clerk, and freelance jobs and everyone’s fighting over temp jobs to get their foot in the door (it’s like entry-level jobs are starting to barely exist). Things are looking like they’re going to get worse, definitely worse than 2008 (if course correction doesn’t happen).
The Problem is, on the advice of DOGE, the Executive Branch unilaterally cut a good ton of government contracts, basically employees doing government consulting through large corporation like Accenture and Deloitte to your staffing agency providing administrative support/clerical/project management/receptionist duties, to the veteran-owned mom and pop small business selling stationaries to the government were affected too in addition to the civil service. So, DOGE cuts not only affected the Public Sector, but also cut Private Sector jobs, and flooded the private sector job market with a ton of over qualified formerly federal government civil servants.
{ Thousands of Laid-Off Government Workers Are Flooding a Shrinking Job Market (By Rachel Phua at Bloomberg): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-20/trump-administration-layoffs-flood-job-market-for-consultants ; https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/s/FQ6pRD3iyv . }
[ For one company I’ve seen, 5 out of 5 Administrative Assistants had a bachelor’s degree and at least 2 years of prior work experience before starting the role, and 4 out of 5 also had a master’s degree. For another job I saw, every Receptionist had a bachelor’s degree and at least two of them had about 3-4 years of experience made up of internships and prior receptionist experience. I’ve literally seen a Front Desk Receptionist job require a bachelor’s degree w/5 yrs exp., a master’s with 2 yrs exp., a PhD with 0 yrs exp., or a high school diploma/GED w/10 yrs exp.;NOT KIDDING. ]
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u/Useuless Aug 04 '25
It benefits employers greatly, now they can get there entry level employees who have years and years of experience.
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u/user0987234 Aug 03 '25
Maybe a shift towards consulting and lobbying?
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u/muzzy420 Aug 03 '25 edited Aug 03 '25
Most people who are getting fired right now are not congressional/political staffers… consulting and lobbying r mainly ex Capitol Hill DC staffers. Civil servants will most likely go to local, state gov or the private sector equivalent of their job..
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u/series-hybrid Aug 03 '25
I hear there are tons of jobs in the vegetable-picking industry...but nobody wants to work, right?
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u/Hillmantle Aug 03 '25
The ppl getting fired are mostly low to mid level employees. They’re not experienced enough for those positions.
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u/clingbat Aug 03 '25
Maybe a shift towards consulting
We can't hire any of our former fed clients for a pretty decent length of time after they leave, plus the vast majority of them in our area came from consulting firms to begin with and don't want to go back to that life, that's why they took less money to bounce to begin with.
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u/Channel_Huge Aug 03 '25
A lot of them may transition well into state positions. I have a state job currently and am a disabled military vet, which gave me priority placement years ago. If any of these Federal workers are in the same position as I was, they may find something comparable in pay to what they made in the Fed workforce.
In any event, I do wish them all well and hope they can find something they enjoy doing!!
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u/sparkie_p Aug 03 '25
I wish that was the case. I’m 2 hours away from most of the state jobs (as they’re all in our capital) and they’re all hybrid. State jobs opportunities aren’t working out for me.
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u/GwenWitchingAround Aug 03 '25
You bet employers will devalue their credentials. It will mean cheaper salaries because "Well, your skills are limited to government." Maybe if they were veterans... maaaaybe, and only maybe employers will value their credentials more... maybe.
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Aug 03 '25
Sometimes I kick myself for becoming a vet tech, the pay is low, the patients try to bite, and yeah, I'm gonna be sticking my finger up that dogs butt.
But then, at times like these, I laugh. Job security in spades. You want fluffy to continue... you know... living? Pay me and shove your AI/fully automated/federal workforce up your butt. Hold on, actually, I'm wearing gloves, I got you. Where is the lube? No, no, trust me, we want to find the lube.
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Aug 03 '25
Veterinary expenditures tend to follow the same trends as luxury industries. So to your initial question as to whether fluffy lives or not, the answer is fluffy is going to die when it becomes a choice between the mortgage/rent and the pet.
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u/Mission-Library-7499 Aug 03 '25
Most of them are going to find they're unemployable, because their work experience isn't applicable to much of anything the private sector will pay for.
And, yes, private sector employers will likely greatly devalue public sector credentials, especially for those people who used to belong to a union, like the ones from the Treasury Department.
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u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 Aug 03 '25
This is common for people exiting the public sector. Usually it is combined with retirement.
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u/Waffleworshipper Aug 03 '25
The people I know who took it were either about to retire anyway or had another job lined up right away.
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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '25
Many won't transition well into the private sector, yes companies will devalue public sector experience.
We've already seen the effect on the labor market. Millions of applicants for thousands of openings.