DOGE cuts

The Natural Resources Conservation Service lost nearly a quarter of its staff nationwide in 2025. Many were local experts that help farmers with soil and water conservation efforts.

Black unemployment is at 7.5%, 1.4% higher than one year ago. For Black women, the jobless rate is 1.9% higher. White unemployment, by contrast, has barely budged, up 0.2% since December 2024.

The economy lost 105,000 jobs in October but gained 64,000 jobs in November.

Amy Uccello was laid off from her job at USAID in late January. Her husband lost his job at a nonprofit working with the agency shortly after.

Up until February, Joya Patel was an employee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Becoming a civil servant again would be no easy task right now.

There’s been a “targeted, surgical removal of data sets, or elements of data sets, that are not aligned with the administration’s priorities,” said Denice Ross at the Federation of American Scientists.

Some of the major DOGE cuts targeted administrative and communications staff at food safety agencies.

“In this sector, I found the spirit of collaboration to be unbelievable,” said Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children U.S., “But, interestingly, that spirit and that culture hasn't translated into distribution deals or joint ventures.”

In a reversal, women lost more federal jobs than men in April.

The Forest Service lost more than 10% of its workforce to DOGE firings, and thousands more voluntarily resigned after the Trump administration’s “fork in the road” offer.