Washington, D.C
Trump’s federal layoffs could mean bleak outlook for Washington DC
From Veterans Affairs to the CDC: Trump, Musk fire federal workers
President Donald Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk cut thousands of probationary positions after only 3.3% of federal workers took Trump’s buyout offer.
The Trump administration’s sweeping layoffs of federal employees already appear to be pushing up joblessness in Washington, D.C., and an economist projects they’ll tip the city into a recession this year.
The developments are rocking an area of the country that traditionally has served as a bastion of steady employment and economic stability through slowdowns or downturns that have roiled other parts of the country.
Nationally, layoffs have remained historically low and forecasters expect solid economic growth this year with little chance of recession.
In the week ending Feb. 15, 1,695 Washington, D.C., workers applied for unemployment insurance for the first time, up slightly from 1,682 the previous week and 619 during the comparable week a year ago, according to the Labor Department’s non-seasonally adjusted figures.
During the four weeks since Trump took office, 5,455 District of Columbia employees filed initial jobless claims – a reliable gauge of layoffs – up sharply from 2,014 in the same period in early 2024. It’s not clear what portion of those are government workers.
But nationally, excluding D.C., the number of Americans seeking jobless benefits through the first four weeks of both this year and in 2024 has totaled about 920,000 on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, highlighting an unusual surge in the district.
Last week, a seasonally adjusted 219,000 Americans across the U.S. filed initial claims, up from 214,000 the previous week and underscoring that, overall, layoffs remain low.
Do federal government employees get laid off?
So far, the Trump administration has fired more than 10,000 workers at the departments of Energy, Agriculture, Interior, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs as well as at the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, among other agencies.
The layoffs come on top of about 75,000 workers who have taken buyouts offered by Trump and White House aide Elon Musk, who have said they’re looking to slash government costs and improve efficiency.
Are all federal employees on probation getting fired?
Administration officials have indicated the cuts would include employees still in their probationary periods as well as others. About 220,000 government employees had less than a year of experience as of March 2024, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
The layoffs mark the beginning of “large-scale reductions” in the federal workforce, according to an executive order signed by Trump.
Ultimately, about 400,000 federal workers likely will lose their jobs over the next two years, or about 15% of the 2.4 million members of the federal workforce, estimates Adam Kamins, regional economist at Moody’s Analytics. Many of the targeted positions, he said, will be scattered across the country, slightly slowing growth nationally, but an outsized share – nearly 100,000 – will be in Washington. The nation’s capital is home to slightly less than a fifth of the federal workforce, according to Pew Research.
What is a recession in simple terms?
The job cuts are expected to push D.C. into a mild recession, or declining economic output, that lasts from the second quarter of this year to the third quarter of 2026, Kamins said. He predicts the city’s unemployment rate will rise from its current 5.5% to a peak of 6.5% in mid-2026 and its gross domestic product will contract for six straight quarters.
Nationally, forecasters expect the economy to grow a solid 2.2% this year and put recession odds at just 25%, according to those surveyed this month by Wolters Kluwer Blue Chip Economic Indicators.
“This is a very unusual situation for D.C.,” Kamins said. “It typically is one of the least” vulnerable cities to the ups and downs of economic cycles as a result of stable government jobs that don’t depend on the vagaries of consumer demand.
In fact, under normal circumstances, if Trump’s widening trade war with other countries were to cause a U.S. recession in the next year or two, Washington government jobs could have been viewed as landing spots for laid-off private-sector workers, Kamins said.
The projected 100,000 federal job cuts will also likely mean thousands more additional job losses as restaurants, retailers and other D.C. businesses that rely on sales to federal workers scale back, Kamins said. That could mean new strains for lower-income residents who work in those occupations. The district’s poverty rate was 14% in 2023, compared to 11.1% for the nation, according to Statista and the U.S. Census Bureau.
“A lot of folks are close to the poverty line,” Kamins said. “It’s just going to exacerbate their situation.”
As employees who work in D.C. but live in Virginia and Maryland receive layoff notices, many will likely reduce their spending, slowing growth in those states but stopping short of nudging the areas into a downturn, Kamins said.
How is the US job market right now?
Meanwhile, government workers who lose their jobs are expected to enter a cooling labor market with fewer opportunities. Many specialize in administration, project management or information technology and there are now relatively few private-sector openings in those fields, said Julia Pollak, chief economist of ZipRecruiter, a leading job search site.
“This will be very difficult for many of them,” she said.
Professional business services, a sprawling sector populated with 22.7 million lawyers, consultants, office managers and other white-collar workers, has shed 69,000 jobs over the past year, Labor Department figures show.
What career is most in demand right now?
At the same time, employers are struggling to find finance specialists, cybersecurity workers and administrative health care professionals, Pollak said. Federal workers in those fields, she said, could find plenty of job vacancies at higher wages.
Many federal employees will likely have to leave the region to find work, Kamins said, with some pivoting to new occupations. If a new administration seeks to restore the scuttled jobs in four years, it may be difficult to find employees, he said.
Pollak is more sanguine.
“There are many people who want to serve in the federal government,” she said.
LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) – A Lawton veteran returned home after visiting Washington, D.C., as part of the Oklahoma Warriors Honor Flight.
Dr. Don Sullivan, a Cold War and Vietnam veteran, was chosen for the honor flight and said the experience “turned out to be wonderful.”
Sullivan was stationed in the D.C. area years ago and had seen the memorials before, but this visit was different.
“It gives you the opportunity to see things, even if you’ve been there before, gives you the opportunity to see things in a different light,” Sullivan said.
One-day tour of memorials
During the one-day trip to Washington, Sullivan and 66 other veterans visited the major war memorials, key national monuments and attended the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery.
“The memorials are wonderful. They’re just awesome and to see all of them in one day, it truly is overwhelming,” Sullivan said.
For this April Oklahoma Warriors Honor Flight, his son accompanied him as his guardian.
“I didn’t particularly need a guardian, but I wanted him to have the experience,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan served with the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam.
“I served in what was called MAC-V, the military assistance command Vietnam. All of my team survived,” Sullivan said.
Emotional visit to the wall
Though he had seen the wall before, the impact was just as vast.
“I never failed to tear up,” Sullivan said. “Though I know not a name on there, you cannot go to the Vietnam memorial and not become emotional or even thinking of it, you know.”
There was one memorial he had not been to: the Military Women’s Memorial.
“If they want to be hugged, they have a hug from me because I know what they went through, and I was pleased to see that memorial, which does depict a nurse tending to a soldier,” Sullivan said.
The trip made him appreciate the support Oklahoma shows for its veterans.
“One thing that I really got out of this is how fortunate we are here as veterans to be living in Lawton, Oklahoma and to be in Oklahoma,” Sullivan said. “In Lawton, you walk through the park you see memorials.”
Welcome home
When he got off the flight after the day-long tour, he received the welcome home he and other Vietnam veterans deserved decades ago.
“Whooping and hollering and clapping and saying thank you thank you thank you. For some of us who came home from Vietnam to San Francisco or whatever, and literally were just ignored and denigrated, that was a terrific homecoming experience,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he looks forward to seeing the Gulf War Memorial that is currently under construction in Washington.
The Oklahoma Warriors Honor Flight is every October and April. All veterans are eligible to apply. Selection priority is given to those who have served in previous conflicts and those who are terminally ill.
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April 22, 2026
City of Kingman Officials Travel to Washington D.C. to Advocate for Local Priorities
Kingman, AZ – Mayor Ken Watkins, Vice Mayor Cherish Sammeli, City Manager Tim Walsh, and Assistant City Manager Tina Moline recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress and federal agency officials to advocate for key City of Kingman priorities. Discussions focused on advancing the proposed release of land at the Kingman Airport to support future industrial development, as well as securing federal funding for critical capital improvement projects such as water and sewer infrastructure improvements.
During the visit, the city delegation met with the offices of U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, and U.S. Representatives Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Greg Stanton.
A central focus of the trip was the City’s request for the release of land at the Kingman Airport. While the City owns the land, it comes with federal deed restrictions that limit its use to airport-related purposes. In order to use the land for industrial or commercial development, the City must receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to release those restrictions. This step is essential to making the land available for future development that could support job creation and long-term economic growth in the region.
To further these discussions, the delegation met directly with FAA Deputy Associate Administrator for Airports Jess Sypniewski to review the land release request and next steps in the process. Discussions also included congressionally directed spending requests for specific Kingman projects, including upgrades to water service lines throughout the City. This process allows members of Congress to request federal funding in the budget for clearly defined local projects that address community needs.
City Manager Tim Walsh described the visit as a valuable opportunity to continue moving key priorities forward.
“These conversations are important in making sure Kingman’s needs are clearly understood at the federal level,” said Walsh. “From the airport land release to infrastructure funding, we are focused on positioning our community for responsible growth and future opportunity.”
The City of Kingman will continue working closely with federal agencies and Congressional representatives to advocate for projects and investments that support the community’s future.
About Kingman
Founded in 1882 and incorporated in 1952, Kingman is the county seat of Mohave County located in northwest Arizona along Interstate 40, U.S. 93, and the historically famous Route 66. The city’s population is 32,689, and approximately 60,000 including neighboring communities. Kingman is a general law city that operates under a council/city manager form of government with a mayor and six councilmembers elected at large. City government provides a wide range of municipal services that include administration, development services, engineering, public works, parks and recreation, water, sewer and sanitation services, and fire and police.
WASHINGTON (7News) — An early Wednesday morning incident at D.C.’s Metro Center left multiple riders injured after a work vehicle made contact with a Silver Line train just before the end of service.
According to Metro officials, the train was holding at the station when the work vehicle struck the rear car shortly after midnight. Officials said there were 27 customers on board at the time.
Officials say 11 people reported non-life-threatening injuries and that Metro personnel were not seriously injured.
SEE ALSO | Metro’s board to vote on budget that calls for fully automated trains on the Red Line
Passengers who did not report injuries were transferred to another train and continued toward Downtown Largo.
The train involved was the final Silver Line run of the night.
Metro said the incident remains under investigation as crews work to determine the cause.
As of 3:30 a.m., it’s not clear what the potential impacts to the morning service may be.
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