Need help mastering a job search? Some tips on attracting a private-sector gig?
For employees who still have jobs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency’s human resources division is offering “career support” sessions, according to a recent email obtained by The New York Times.
“This session is designed to meet you where you are,” the Housing and Urban Development notification said, hinting at the protracted uncertainty that has loomed over most federal employees since President Trump returned to the Oval Office.
The agency did notrespond to questions about how many employees would be offered this workshop or whether those who had been fired or left would be included.
The rapid, indiscriminate job cuts and efforts to pressure workers to resign made by the Trump administration and Elon Musk have rattled the federal work force rattled — which faces the prospect of yet more mass firings in the pursuit of Mr. Trump’s goal to shrink and overhaul the civil service.
The majority of government agencies have yet to announce their latest round of layoffs as part of the administration’s “reduction in force.” Those could come any day.
The Department of Transportation is offering similar workshops to its employees, Politico reported on Tuesday.
Some federal workers said they were insulted by the idea of such sessions, which they read as another attempt by the Trump administration to encourage them to quit their jobs.
One H.U.D. employee said it was disrespectful and confusing, asking why the agency would help its workers prepare to leave.
The employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said those who still had jobs had found themselves taking on extra work to cover for those who had left or been terminated.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources arm, the federal civilian work force had about 2.3 million employees at the beginning of the year. The personnel office has not said how many people are still employed after firings and resignations.
In its first major downsizing effort, the Trump administration abruptly fired around 25,000 probationary workers in February. Those workers have been in employment limbo for months, at the mercy of legal battles that have led to a confusing yo-yo of reinstatements and refirings.
Fired federal workers face a sluggish job market. Cory Stahle, an economist at the job search platform Indeed, said that applications from federal workers significantly increased between the beginning of the year and late March 2025.
“The biggest question surrounding the early efforts to reduce federal head count is whether the labor market can absorb these displaced workers,” Mr. Stahle wrote in an article last month on Indeed’s “Hiring Lab” website. A majority of federal workers are well-educated, he said, and the market has shown less job availability in areas that hire such candidates.
“This suggests that federal workers are likely to face greater challenges in their job search now than they might have a few years ago,” he wrote.
Eileen Sullivan is a Times reporter covering the changes to the federal work force under the Trump administration.
Madeleine Ngo covers U.S. economic policy and how it affects people across the country.
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