Federal employment in PA. Dropped before Doge starts cutting jobs

Pennsylvania has lost 700 federal workers between January and February, marking the highest decrease in Monday of Federal Jobs of November 2020, according to preliminary data published on Friday by the Labor Statistics Office.

The data, which reflects the salaries of February 12, provide the first glance on what the federal labor in Pennsylvania looked just before the president Donald TrumpThe government’s administration and department of efficiency, led by Trump’s billionaire Elon Musk, started most of their mass federal availability, leaving many confused and impatient employees.

In February, Pennsylvania federal agencies hired 103,600 workers, decreasing by 0.7% compared to 104,300 in January. The figure represents a modest decrease of 0.3% compared to the same period a year ago, according to BLS data.

This decrease in Pennsylvania federal workforce could reflect the employees who decided to take the “Fork in the Road” offer of the federal government – known as “delayed resignation program” allowed workers to resign with eight -month salary – or those who could have been scared of the offer and decided to prevent preventively to government jobs, said Josh Mask, economics teacher at Temple University. The natural attitude, exacerbated by Trump’s Executive Order, establishing a government hiring frost, can also be guilty, Mask said.

At the state level, 103,600 federal workers in Pennsylvania represents about 1.7% of the total workforce, According to the data. The US Postal Service includes the highest weight of Federal Workers in Pennsylvania, with over 28,000 employees from September 2024, according to a separate BLS data set.

Recent dismissions extended to the federal workforce of Philadelphia In agencies such as the Veterans Business Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Income Service.

Federal workers are made up a relatively high proportion of the city’s workforce. In September, Philadelphia had 30,765 federal employees, comprising 4.3% of the 718,649 total workers of the fourth, proportional action in the counties of the whole state.

“I believe that if the federal government will reduce the federal workforce, it will certainly be one of the parties to be the most affected,” Mask said, mentioning that many of the dismissals led by Dogs are challenged in court and may not be held.

Since September the federal government was the second largest employer in Philadelphia and the agencies hiring most federal workers In the city were the Defense Department, the Treasury Department and the Postal Service.

When Trump signed an executive order establishing a government that hires frost, union leaders representing federal employees in Philadelphia they were away from the potential of the order to be detrimental to the federal labor already thin already thin of the city.

Then came the “fork on the way” and a Judge has extended the deadline for employees to decide if they will take the offer to The evening February 12.

Subsequently came a mass dismissal dilutele mainly aiming for the sample workers – Usually, people who are in the first year since their new job or promotion – within Philadelphia agencies. A judge in San Francisco ordered the reinstallation of thousands of fired test officers but Trump the Supreme Court asked Monday to block the judge’s judgment.

It remains to be seen what impacts will have Doge’s discounts on the federal labor of the long -term region. The number of federal employees in the Philadelphia subway area was on a long -term decline Starting at least 1990, the first year for which data is available.

Mask, the Temple’s economy teacher, believes that Doge’s discounts on subsidies and contracts for educational and medical institutions in Philadelphia could have a much greater negative effect on the region’s economy and could eventually lead to employees of these institutions.

“Philadelphia has a lot of different medical systems that are based on NIH financing, HHS, Medicaid, Medicare,” Mask said. “So, to the extent that you see discounts of these programs, I think downstream, you will eventually see the reduction of many medical systems.”

The Trump administration has made these dismissals in the name of cutting government spending. The federal agencies based in Philadelphia paid total salaries of 827,370.263 in the third quarter of 2024.

The federal salaries of the employees are a small part of the total budget of the Government, said Max Stier, founding president and CEO of the Public Service Partnership, a non -profit non -party organization aimed at encouraging an improved federal government.

“You look somewhere around the 4% of the total budget,” said Stier about all the salaries of federal workers, mentioning that civil servants are usually paid less than employees working in the private sector, where Doge encouraged government workers to apply.

“It is quite small and it is certainly not a place where you will save a lot of money,” Stier said. “More precisely, the activities, the reduction that Doge did are actually creating the costs, not saving money.”

But the impact of recent discounts could extend in the future, said Stier, adding that he is concerned about the effect they will have on the recruitment of new workers for federal jobs, with their reputation for their stability and security.

“This is a fire rather than renovation,” he said.