One year after DOGE cuts, former federal workers find new roles

Last spring, Chantel Williams’ position in the federal government was in limbo.

Williams, once a General Services Administration employee on its hiring and recruitment team, found herself in a state of confusion and anxiety. The agency she worked for was in a holding pattern as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency began its work to aggressively shrink the size and scope of government agencies at President Donald Trump’s direction.

The DOGE cuts, a pillar of Trump’s second term, were swift and wide-reaching across the federal workforce. Some of the most affected agencies included the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education.

“As a federal employee, the oath is to the work and to the role, and not the administration,” Williams said. “It started off as feeling very startling that the transition wasn’t occurring as seamlessly as it had in prior years, because I had been working at GSA through a transition before.”

Williams said she felt, for the first time, real turmoil about working for the federal government.

“It was hard to wake up every day wanting to continue to serve but feel as though your leadership may have a different priority or maybe an opposition of you continuing to move forward in that mission,” said Williams.

In the end, she opted to take deferred resignation, receiving pay to leave her government post. She joined thousands of others in what was the largest reduction of the federal workforce in history, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

At the end of 2025, OPM reported that approximately 352,000 employees exited roles last year, with more than 123,000 taking the deferred resignation offer. In a release late last year, OPM said it was “in line with President Trump’s goal of a smaller, more efficient government.”

As mass layoffs and resignations hit federal workers like Williams, Caitlin Lewis stepped in to help.

Her nonprofit, Work for America, launched in November 2024 to help local governments recruit talent to fill gaps in staffing. Through its Civic Match platform, it helps former federal workers find new roles at the state and local level. The Work for America team has grown from two people to 15 in the last year, and the vast majority have come from prior careers in state, local and federal government. Four employees came directly from federal government roles.

“We never imagined the volume of need that was going to occur,” Lewis said. “What is so unique about this job seeker population is how unexpected the layoffs were for so many of…