What would happen to local unemployment rates throughout the US if the new nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were to cut 75 percent of the federal workforce?
A new analysis suggests that the most-affected areas, in terms of unemployment, tend to be small and home to military installations or bases. The smallest metropolitan areas would see large changes in their labor markets, double that of large metros. And aside from DC, unemployment rates in large metro areas would increase by 1 percent or less.
DOGE’s early promises of large cuts to the civilian federal workforce would have wide-ranging effects. Cutting the workforce to this extent wouldn’t just affect DC—it would spill over every region and every state in the country.
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