Some former federal employees are still struggling to find the right fit

Speaking outside of a job fair at a Northern Virginia Community College campus on Thursday, Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said that “a lot of people have landed” since the Trump administration last year pushed hundreds of thousands of employees out of the civil service through layoffs, firings and separation incentives. 

“But there's sadly been a persistent subset that has been very difficult to find a job that matches their skill set,” the congressman told Government Executive. “For example, foreign service officers and people that worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development [which the Trump administration shuttered], they have a unique skill — helping children not get malaria, or feeding kids or doing family planning in sub-Saharan Africa. There's not a lot of use for that in metropolitan Washington, D.C.” 

The job fair, which was co-hosted by Beyer’s office, the city of Alexandria, Arlington County and several other nonprofits and state and local government agencies, is an example of ongoing initiatives to re-employ workers who lost their jobs as the Trump administration slashed agency workforces. 

David Remick, the executive director of the Alexandria/Arlington Regional Workforce Council, said it has been a challenge to provide assistance to former feds, as there is a lot of variation in the type of work they used to perform. 

“The positions were a bit all over the place,” he said. “There are some people that could, with some rebranding, move into something different. And there's others that can't.” 

Remick emphasized the number of resources available to ex-feds looking for new work, including artificial intelligence-based tools (his office recommends Google’s Career Dreamer) and community support organizations. 

“Some people feel a sense of isolation because they're not going into an office every day, and so there have been a number of ad hoc groups just popping up over the year where people can find belonging,” he said. 

Government Executive has previously featured FedsForward, an AI-powered website that helps former civil servants navigate the private sector job search, and the organizations Former Gov and wellfed, which offer regular opportunities for ex-feds to connect. 

As time goes on, Remick said the workforce council is offering fewer resources specifically for unemployed feds. For example, Thursday’s job fair, while marketed to laid off agency staffers and government contractors, was open to the general public. 

“We still see people in our workshops or webinars, but we're not necessarily breaking them out between former federal workforce and anybody else. It's just — these are the people that we're supporting,” he said. “There was sort of a scarlet letter on some of these [former feds], they felt,  because they were in this situation. And it shouldn't be that way. They're still valuable people that bring a lot to the economy, and I've just learned to treat them like anybody else. They appreciate that.” 

Beyer has introduced bills to bring some of the pushed out feds back into government service. One would give federal hiring preference to individuals who were involuntarily removed from the civil service between Jan. 1, 2025, and the end of the current calendar year (H.R. 3093), while another would exempt former foreign service officers who were pushed out during Trump’s second term from having to retake the Foreign Service Officer Test if they want to rejoin (H.R. 9730). 

While neither measure has advanced in the current Congress, Beyer thinks they could pass if Democrats retake the House and/or Senate in the upcoming midterm elections. 

“They're not partisan bills. They're not ‘D’ bills or ‘R’ bills,” he said. “So I think we can get them to the Senate. Getting the president to sign them might be harder.” 

There were at least two federal agencies at the job fair recruiting new workers: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

FEMA has walked back plans to halve its workforce, but the disaster response agency did lose 17% of its staffers in fiscal 2025. And agency officials have argued that they can operate with a smaller headcount because of technological advances.