NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� HIRING: Park ranger. SEEKING: Nuclear submarine engineer. WANTED: Sled dog musher.
If they seem unlikely postings, they probably are. But a laid-off federal worker can dream.
Axed from jobs not easily found outside government, thousands of federal workers caught in President Donald Trump鈥檚 cost-cutting efforts now face a difficult search for work.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e doing, say, vegetation sampling and prescribed fire as your main work, there aren鈥檛 many jobs,鈥� says Eric Anderson, 48, of Chicago, who was fired Feb. 14 from his job as a biological science technician at Indiana Dunes National Park.
All the years of work Anderson put in 鈥� the master鈥檚 degree, the urban forestry classes, the wildfire deployments 鈥� seemed to disappear in a single email dismissing him.
He鈥檚 hoping there鈥檚 a chance he鈥檚 called back, but if he isn鈥檛, he鈥檚 not sure what he鈥檒l do next. He was so consumed with his firing that he broke a molar from grinding his teeth. But he knows he's caught in something larger than himself, as the new administration unfurls its chaotic cost-cutting agenda.
鈥淭his is someone coming in and tossing a hand grenade and seeing what will happen,鈥� he says.
The federal job cuts , headed by billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tearing through agencies looking for suspected waste. No official tally of firings has been released, but the list stretches into the thousands and to nearly every part of the country. More than 80% of the federal government鈥檚 2.4-million-person civilian workforce is based outside of the Washington area.
Cathy Nguyen, 51, of Honolulu, , where she helped manage the PEPFAR program, which combats HIV/AIDS.
Her firing not only brought the turmoil of finding new health insurance, halting saving for retirement and her kids鈥� college education, and trimming spending for things like the family subscription to Disney Plus 鈥� it also has forced her to reconsider her career goals.
PEPFAR is a landmark effort that stretches across dozens of countries and is credited with saving some 26 million lives. Nothing rivals it. So where does a former PEPFAR worker go?
鈥淚t鈥檚 requiring me to rethink how I want to spend my professional life,鈥� Nguyen says.
As specialized as Nguyen鈥檚 work has been, Mitch Flanigan may have her beat.
Flanigan, 40, was assigned to the sled dog kennels at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska until he was fired Feb. 14. It never brought a huge paycheck, but where else could he get to work as a dog musher against such a breathtaking panorama?
He has appealed his firing with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.
鈥淚 still kind of want to fight for the job that I lost,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 not really making much money, it鈥檚 just fun and it鈥檚 a unique thing to be a part of.鈥�
A November report from the Federal Salary Council, which advises on government pay, than those in the private sector.
A Congressional Budget Office report released last year . Federal workers with a high school diploma or less outearned their private-sector counterparts with 17% higher wages, the CBO found. That edge disappeared among better-educated workers. Workers with bachelor鈥檚 degrees had wages 10% lower than the private sector and those with professional degrees or doctorates earned 29% less. Federal benefits were vastly better than the private sector for the lowest-educated workers, the CBO found, and about even for the highest-educated workers.
Many laid off from federal positions were drawn by stability, benefits and, more than anything, the opportunity to do work they might not be able to do anywhere else. Now, everyone from diplomats to public health workers are flooding the job market looking for suitable positions.
Gracie Lynne, a 32-year-old , who lives in Eugene, Oregon, took a pay cut when she started her job four years ago.
Her parents lost their home during the Great Recession, which led to their divorce, years of financial angst, and Lynne鈥檚 own interest in financial regulation. She found herself following the nascent CFPB鈥檚 rulemaking and poring over 1,000-page bills on bank regulations. She wrote her master鈥檚 thesis on the bureau. She couldn鈥檛 pass up the job.
鈥淭his is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,鈥� she told herself.
Plus, she thought, the benefits would come in handy when she and her husband decided to start a family. Now, six months pregnant, she finds herself jobless and scrambling to get insured.
She isn鈥檛 sure where she鈥檒l land, or if she鈥檒l find many employers rushing to hire someone about to become a mother. But she feels more committed than ever to the work she did.
鈥淚 feel even more compelled to stay in the public sector after this experience,鈥� she says, noting the good work protecting consumers she was every day, 鈥渢o stay in the fight.鈥�
Luke Tobin, a 24-year-old forestry technician who worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho鈥檚 Nez Perce National Forest, who was fired from his job Feb. 14, finds the accusations of waste by Musk and others laughable. He sees extreme understaffing and threadbare budgets.
He earned about $19 an hour and was furloughed for about half of the year but still relished a job that had him backpacking in remote areas for days at a time.
Scrambling to find a replacement job, he鈥檚 put in dozens of applications. He has pursued openings on tree farms, at tree-trimming companies and at nurseries, but so far, has only heard back from two employers on two minimum-wage jobs: one as an Amazon delivery person and the other as a line cook at a fried chicken restaurant.
鈥淚 need a job,鈥� he says, 鈥渁ny job.鈥�
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Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.
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Matt Sedensky can be reached at [email protected] and
Matt Sedensky, The Associated Press
