Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s moves to fire thousands of federal Government workers have coincided with a surge in jobless claims in Washington DC, that could get worse as the efforts intensify, reported CNBC.
Since Trump has taken office, nearly 4,000 workers in the city have filed for unemployment insurance as part of a surge that began at the start of the New Year, the CNBC report said quoting Labour Department figures not adjusted for seasonal factors.
In all, just shy of 7,000 claims have been filed in the six weeks of the New Year, or about 55 per cent more than in the prior six-week period. Filings rose to 1,780 for the week ending February 8, a 36 per cent increase from the prior week and more than four times around the same period in 2024, said the report filed by Jeff Cox of the CNBC By contrast, it said, the total level of claims in the US has been moving little, with the four-week moving average of initial claims at 216,000, little changed from the beginning of the year and actually trending lower for the most part over the past several months.
The jump in DC claims comes as Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency advisory board have ordered layoffs across the Government structure and instituted buyout programmes for early retirement. “I expect it to go higher, and definitely we’ll be watching it very closely,” said Raj Namboothiry, Senior Vice-president at Manpower North America, the workforce solutions company.
While it’s unclear what share of the spike is directly related to federal Government workers, the rise coincides with the White House ordering the layoffs of probationary employees along with thousands of others as the administration seeks a broad-based reduction in the labour force. In addition, some 75,000 employees have accepted the buyout offer.
Washington DC had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at 5.5 per cent as of December 2024, surpassed only by Nevada, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
