Page 19 - AHATA

A2 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 25 sepTember 2025
Trump’s workforce purge batters D.C.’s

job market and leads to rise in homes

for sale, report finds

By FATIMA HUSSEIN a report released Wednes- Monitor, a real-time data
Associated Press day. interactive created by the
WASHINGTON (AP) — The The number of homes for Brookings Institution with
Department of Govern- sale in the District of Co- the Metropolitan Wash-
ment Efficiency’s remaking lumbia, Maryland and Vir- ington Council of Govern-
of the federal workforce ginia region, also known ments.
has battered the Wash- as the DMV, is up by 64% Washington has had the
Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., protests against DOGE, the ington job market and put since June 2024, and the nation’s highest season-
Department of Government Efficiency, as he and other House more households in the region’s unemployment ally adjusted unemploy-
Democrats speak out against the Republican budget plan, on metropolitan area in finan- rate is the highest in the na- ment rate for four straight
the House steps at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 25, 2025.
Associated Press cial distress, according to tion, according to the DMV months. The unemploy-
ment rate was 5.3% in Jan-
uary and ticked up to 6%
in August, compared with
the 4.3% national average,
according to Bureau of La-
bor Statistics data.
From the start of President
Donald Trump’s second
term in January, DOGE,
led by his then-adviser Elon
Musk, instigated purges of
federal agencies with the
expressed mission of root-
ing out fraud, waste and
abuse. DOGE led to tens
of thousands of job cuts, in-
cluding layoffs and people
who accepted financial
incentives to quit. Some
people were rehired, a re-
flection of the haphazard
process. Although losses
were felt around the coun-
try, the Washington area
was particularly hard hit.
Scott Kupor, director of
the U.S. Office of Person-
nel Management, said
last month that there will
be 300,000 fewer federal
workers on the payroll na-
tionwide by the end of the
year. The government has
about 2.5 million workers,
including military members.
Contractors have been af-
fected, too. DOGE’s web-
site states that 13,231 fed-
eral government contracts
have been terminated, to-
taling $59 billion in savings.
In fiscal year 2024, more
than 100,000 companies
received contracts, total-
ing roughly $774 billion.
Besides the mass layoffs,
the Republican president’s
other actions to remake
the image of the nation’s
capital including deploy-
ing National Guard troops
and federalizing the city’s
local Metropolitan Po-
lice Department “could
shape consumer spending
and investment in the lo-
cal economy,” the report
says.q