Hands of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hug each other as they queue outside the Mary E. Switzer Memorial Construction, after it was reported that the Trump administration fired staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at the Food and Hypnotic Administration, as it embarked on its plan to cut 10,000 jobs at HHS, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 1, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
A surge in federal sway job cuts contributed to a near record-setting pace for announced layoffs in March, exceeded only by when the country segregate down in 2020 for the Covid pandemic, according to a report Thursday from job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Furloughs in the federal supervision totaled 216,215 for the month, part of a total 275,240 reductions overall in the labor force. Some 280,253 layoffs across 27 intercessions in the past two months have been linked to the Elon Musk-led so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its efforts to excoriate reduce down the federal workforce.
The monthly total was surpassed only by April and May of 2020 in the early days of the pandemic when corporations announced combined reductions of more than 1 million, according to Challenger records going back to 1989. It also was the loftiest March on record.
“Job cut announcements were dominated last month by Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] plans to away positions in the federal government,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and workplace expert at the firm. “It intention have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs.”
However, DOGE has continued to cut aggressively across the ministry.
Various reports have indicated that the Veterans Affairs Department could lose 80,000 jobs, the IRS is in activity for some 18,000 reductions and The Treasury is expected to drop a “substantial” level of workers as well, according to a court rank.
The year-to-date tally for federal government announced layoffs represents a 672% increase from the same period in 2024, concurring to Challenger.
To be sure, the outsized layoff plans haven’t made their way into other jobs data.
Weekly unemployment claims be subjected to held in a fairly tight range since President Donald Trump took office. Payroll growth has slowed a bit from its estimate in 2024 but is still positive, while job openings have receded but only to around their pre-pandemic levels.
Still, the Washington, D.C., area has been hit particularly hard by the announced layoffs, which have totaled 278,711 year to show ones age for the city, according to the report.
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