Over 4,000 former federal employees in Washington, D.C. have filed for unemployment insurance, increasing job insecurity among workers as the Trump administration announces mass layoffs in multiple agencies.
Around 220,000 federal employees have been out of work since President Donald Trump took office.
Eli, a former USAID worker who refrained from sharing their last name, was only hired a few weeks ago but was let go due to funding cuts. He shared why it’s hard for former federal workers to find jobs during the hiring freeze.
“The private sector will be saturated,” he said. “USAID had over 10,000 employees, and only a few hundred remain, so there will be a large number of people looking for jobs in the private sector. Once again, it is already small.”
