Fired federal employees search for work but struggle to replace their old jobs

Thousands of federal workers are seeking employment after being affected by President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting efforts within the government. 

How many federal employees have lost their jobs?

Local perspective:

An official number of federal workers fired has not been released, but the list extends into the thousands. Most of the federal government’s workforce is based outside the Washington, D.C. area.

What they're saying:

"If you’re doing, say, vegetation sampling and prescribed fire as your main work, there aren’t many jobs," Eric Anderson, 48, of Chicago, told the Associated Press. Anderson was fired Feb. 14 from his job as a biological science technician at Indiana Dunes National Park.

Cathy Nguyen, 51, of Honolulu, was laid off last month from her job at USAID, where she helped manage the PEPFAR program, which combats HIV/AIDS. "It’s requiring me to rethink how I want to spend my professional life," Nguyen shared with the AP. 

Lawsuit filed over Elon Musk email demand to federal workers

A lawsuit was filed Monday against Elon Musk’s email threat to federal employees that was sent over the weekend. Attorneys for federal workers say in a lawsuit that Musk violated the law with his demand that employees explain their accomplishments or risk being fired.

The backstory:

 Elon Musk tweeted during the weekend that all federal employees will be asked to report "what they got done last week," and that failure to reply would be considered a resignation. 

RELATED: Elon Musk email to federal employees targeted in lawsuit

Moments later, federal workers received a three-line email telling them to share "approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager."

Trump administration offers buyouts to federal workers

Dig deeper:

President Donald Trump’s administration is offering buyouts to federal employees to quickly reduce the government workforce through the deferred resignation program.

The buyouts are for all full-time federal employees except for military personnel, employees of the U.S. Postal Service and those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security. Workers will receive roughly eight months of salary if they accept the offer, the Associated Press reported. 

RELATED: Federal worker buyout deadline: What we know about the deferred resignation program

This buyout is led by Elon Musk, one of President Donald Trump’s advisers, who has organized a financial incentive for workers to leave their government jobs by offering several months of pay in exchange for their resignation, the Associated Press reported. 

How many government workers are there?

By the numbers:

The federal government employs over 3 million people, accounting for 1.9% of the nation’s entire civilian workforce, the Associated Press reported, citing the Pew Research Center. The civilian workforce is about 2.4 million, not including the U.S. Postal Service employees and active-duty military.

Almost 20% of federal workers are in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. California has 147,500 federal employees, but it's less than 1% of total nonfarming employees in the state, the AP noted. Texas has 130,000 federal workers, but that accounts for less than 1% of nonfarming jobs there and Florida has 94,000.