Tiffany Van Nurden of Providence fills out application paperwork during the Monday job fair seeking foodservice, security, housekeeping and operations workers for Tidewater Landing soccer stadium at the Blackstone Valley Visitor center in Pawtucket on Feb 24, 2025.
Washington D.C. – A wave of federal employees is scrambling for new jobs as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pushes aggressive agency overhauls, according to new data from job listing site Indeed. Job applications from workers in agencies targeted by DOGE have surged 75% compared to 2022, signaling growing uncertainty among public sector employees.
“We’ve never seen something like this after a presidential administration and inauguration,” said Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed. While shifts in federal employment are typical after elections, the current exodus dwarfs past trends, with applications from affected agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development jumping 60 percentage points from January to February.
The timing couldn’t be worse. As white-collar industries struggle with stagnation, competition for jobs is already fierce. “It’s not a good time to be looking for a job,” Stahle noted. Federal workers, many of whom have specialized skills, may find it challenging to transition into new roles. “If you are a displaced USDA worker with a background in horticulture, what do your prospects look like right now?”
Adding to the difficulty, many of these job seekers are seasoned professionals. Federal data shows they have an average tenure of 11 years and high education levels—70% hold at least a bachelor’s degree. This influx of skilled workers into a slowing job market could make landing a new role even harder.
The impact isn’t just hitting Washington, D.C. While nearly half a million federal workers live in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area, 80% of those seeking jobs through Indeed are based elsewhere, with a significant portion in the South. Their job search could intensify competition in local labor markets already struggling with slowing hiring.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that displaced workers could find opportunities in the private sector, but uncertainty is growing. Economist Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve and White House economist, warns that the upheaval could lead to broader economic risks. “Many of them won’t lose their job, because we do need a certain number of federal workers to make everything go,” Sahm told NBC News. “But at this point, there are a lot of people who are very uncertain from day to day what their employment is.”
That uncertainty may already be affecting consumer spending. “Are they going to go out and buy a house? Are they going to go buy a car?” Sahm asked. “The very rational response would be don’t go out and buy stuff.”
While federal employees make up less than 2% of the labor force, Sahm warns that DOGE’s rapid overhaul is “adding unnecessarily to the risks” of a recession. “Once they take hold, recessionary dynamics are difficult to avoid and costly to ‘fix,’” she cautioned.
For now, federal workers are bracing for an uncertain future, while economists and job seekers alike watch closely to see just how deep the ripple effects will go.
