Elon Musk listens to US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, February 11, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The movements of President Donald Trump to dismiss thousands of federal government workers have collapsed with an increase in unemployment claims in Washington, DC, which could deteriorate with increasing efforts.
Since Trump took office, almost 4,000 employees in the city have applied for unemployment insurance as part of an increase that began at the beginning of the new year, according to the Ministry of Labor, which were not adapted to seasonal factors.
In total, just under 7,000 claims were submitted in the six weeks of the new year, or about 55% more than in the previous six -week time. The submissions rose to 1,780 for the week on February 8, which was 36% and more than four times in the same period in 2024 compared to the previous week.
In contrast, the total level of claims in the United States has hardly moved, with the four -week sliding average of the initial claims of 216,000 changed at the beginning of the year and has actually become lower in recent months.
The leap of the DC claims comes when Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency Advisory led by Elon Musk have arranged layoffs throughout the state structure and have set up buyout programs for early retirement.
“I assume that things will run higher and we will definitely watch it very closely,” said Raj Namboothiry, Senior Vice President at Manpower North America, the Workforce Solutions Company.
Although it is unclear which share in the spike is directly related to the employees of the federal government, the increase with the White House collapses and, together with thousands of others, organizes the layoffs of probation workers, while the administration strives for a broad reduction in workers. In addition, around 75,000 employees accepted the buyout offer.
Washington, DC, had one of the country's highest unemployment rates in December 2024 with 5.5%, which according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics only exceeded by Nevada. The metropolitan region including the Arlington and Alexandria area, Virginia, was only 2.7%. The national unemployment rate for the month was 4.1% before falling back to 4% in January.
Wider work picture still solid
Namboothiry said that the reduction of federal employees could have some problems in the region, although it would not do little to separate a national picture that he described “quite stable”.
“Yes, the numbers are definitely considerable,” he said. “But because you are distributed over several [geographies]Several skills, several sectors, I do not see that an important role in the effects of the overall market plays. “
There are about 2.4 million federal employees, without postal workers, and almost a fifth in the DC area and distributed the others across the country. Outside of Spikes around the tax season, the number has been relatively constant since the late 1960s.
Nevertheless, Trump has targeted the federal employment lists as the main component of his efforts to reduce the size of the government.
However, displaced employees may not be unemployed for long. Namboothiry believes that its skills could be asked for a high degree for certain economic sectors.
“This offers an opportunity because there are customers who are looking for talents who assume that they can benefit,” he said. “There will be some discussions about an interest from employers with this talent pool.”
The cuts to which Trump is aimed are spread in the government, with some agencies expect dramatic cuts.
Like these displaced persons, Allison Shrivastava, economist, said rental laboratory in the act.
“It could be that very few of them stay without work,” she said. “It definitely depends on the sector. For example, if you, if you increase the layoffs, we saw postings, we saw that you are in software development. These jobs were not so asked. 'Re in.”
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