As U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to reduce the size of the federal workforce through rapid-fire mass layoffs and buyouts, some Democratic governors are courting the newly unemployed to come to work for state governments instead.
On Monday, New York filled digital billboards in Washington’s Union Station encouraging former federal government employees to consider some of the state’s 7,000 public-sector job openings. It featured a cartoon of a pointing Statue of Liberty alongside the slogan: “New York Wants You.”
Hawaii is fast-tracking recruitment. Maryland and New Mexico are convening job fairs.
Trump, a Republican who returned to the White House in January, has said the executive branch of the U.S. government, which had about 2.3 million civilian employees as of September 2024, is bloated and inefficient. But where Trump sees waste, some Democratic leaders see a talent pool of workers with specialized skills.
The majority of those employees are based outside Washington: in regional offices that deal with taxes or weather forecasts or Social Security benefits administration, in Veterans Affairs clinics and regional prosecutors’ offices, and in national parks and wildlife reserves.
Trump’s attempts to reduce the size of the payroll, often in a manner seen as haphazard, have caused anxiety and alarm. At least one U.S. district judge has ruled that some of the mass firings, believed to number in the tens of thousands, may be illegal.
“These are essential jobs requiring many years of specialized experience done by real people with bills to pay and families to support,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said at a press conference on Monday after meeting with some people who had recently lost their federal jobs.
“They should be commended for their service, not mocked by the president and handed a pink slip,” she added.
Hochul said New York’s public sector had shrunk because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the state was in need of technologists, engineers, attorneys, healthcare workers and educators, among other roles.
The White House declined to encourage the recruitment efforts by Hochul and other governors on Monday.
“Leave it to the failed New York State bureaucracy to stack their payrolls with more bureaucrats at the expense of the abused taxpayers of New York,” Harrison Fields, a Trump spokesperson, wrote in an email. “Growing the public sector is not President Trump’s definition of job creation.”
Most federal employees are in labor unions, a coalition of which has sued Trump’s Office of Personnel Management for compelling government departments to fire thousands of probationary employees who have been either recently hired or promoted.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup sided with the unions and issued a temporary order, opens new tab to OPM to cease attempting to fire probationary employees in other departments, saying the office had exceeded the authority given to it by Congress.
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Hochul said New York would support any illegally fired workers who wanted to return to their federal jobs.
In Maryland, which neighbors Washington, Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, has ordered state agencies, opens new tab to brace for an influx of former federal employees and to expedite hiring for “hard to fill” positions. He will also encourage some laid-off workers to consider second careers as Maryland teachers.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green, a Democrat, ordered, opens new tab the fast-tracking of credential checks for some federal workers and for state agencies to make a conditional job offer within 14 days of receiving an individual’s application.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has created a jobs portal, opens new tab for former federal workers.
At least one Republican has also made provisions for the newly unemployed.
Governor Glenn Youngkin is encouraging Virginia residents laid off by Trump to leave public service behind and join the private sector via the “Virginia Has Jobs” portal, opens new tab, which includes resume tips for translating government jargon into corporate jargon.
