For Ashley Garley, the previous 12 months has been “messy, challenging and heartbreaking.”
Garley, a former contractor and malaria professional with the US Agency for International Development, was among the many first folks impacted by the Department of Government Efficiency’s massive shrinking of the federal workforce final 12 months, led by billionaire Elon Musk, which started nearly instantly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Garley, who misplaced her job after the US froze all foreign aid in late January 2025, is struggling to discover a full-time job with advantages greater than a 12 months later. To contribute to the payments, she has returned to a job she held in her teenagers and 20s: swim teacher.
Going from a jet-setting job with international impression, to educating part-time at her county pool in Maryland has been “pretty emotional,” Garley instructed NCS.
Like Garley, a whole bunch of 1000’s of federal staff and contractors have had their lives upended by Trump’s quest to clamp down on the federal workforce, whom he sees as a menace to his capability to execute his priorities.
More than 350,000 staff have left the federal authorities’s payroll since the president began his second time period on January 20, 2025, in accordance with the Office of Personnel Management.
After accounting for brand new hires, the federal workforce shrunk by 242,000 folks – or simply over 10% – between his inauguration day and December. Nearly 2.1 million federal civilian staff stay.
Trump stated final month that he doesn’t really feel unhealthy concerning the downsizing, claiming with out proof that former federal staff at the moment are making more cash within the non-public sector.
But that’s not been everybody’s expertise. NCS spoke with a number of former federal staff who had been laid off or accepted buyouts amid DOGE’s aggressive and controversial cuts final 12 months. Some of them, like Garley, have struggled to discover a job and pay the payments. Meanwhile, others have pivoted careers, moved throughout the nation for brand new jobs or are dedicating their time to volunteer work – and discovering a silver lining of their new lives.
Here are a few of their tales:
The stress of dropping her dream job on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention landed Morgan Hall within the hospital.
A number of months after she obtained her final paycheck in August, Hall instructed NCS that she had been in mattress for days with out consuming or answering the telephone. Her son in the end discovered her, and she or he was hospitalized in October for 10 days with extreme despair, nervousness, and bodily problems tied to a preexisting medical situation that may be worsened by stress.
Hall – who labored as an analyst for CDC’s violence prevention division – was initially positioned on administrative depart on February 14, 2025, and later terminated as a part of the sweeping layoffs generally known as a “reduction in force,” or RIFs. She is among the many 10,500 folks throughout companies who had been affected by RIFs.
Hall says she has fallen behind on payments, which incorporates roughly $57,000 in hospital prices. For two months, she relied on meals stamps to purchase groceries, sought state help for utilities, and a relative helped cowl her mortgage so she wouldn’t lose her house.
In January, Hall started a short lived 12-week stint that positioned her again at CDC, working by means of a contractor. However, she says she continues to be unable to satisfy her bills. She can also be persevering with to use for jobs, submitting a minimum of 5 functions on most days.
“My hope and prayer is that one day I can go back and continue to complete my mission at CDC,” Hall instructed NCS, including “I feel like a part of me is gone.”
When Casey Hollowell determined to take the second buyout offer, generally known as the deferred resignation program, from the US Department of Agriculture in April, he figured he’d have no hassle discovering a job by the point his federal paychecks would cease on the finish of September.
An Army veteran who served in Iraq, Hollowell hadn’t wished to go away his submit as an investigative analyst however felt he had no job safety after being laid off within the administration’s purge of probationary staff final February after which reinstated by a federal decide.
Initially, he thought he could possibly be choosy, in search of distant jobs so he might keep in Biloxi, Mississippi, near his teenage son. But Hollowell, 40, grew involved after making use of for a number of positions and never getting any responses. So he widened his search, making use of to as many as 30 jobs a day, together with ones that had been in-person or part-time or entry stage.
Though his grandparents helped him cowl his payments, the fruitless job hunt weighed on him. He stopped hanging out together with his associates as a result of he felt he couldn’t afford it.
“I became a hermit,” stated Hollowell. “I just stayed at home, like, all the time.”
Then in December, he received an enormous break. Hollowell utilized for an information analyst place at an insurance coverage claims administration firm, and fewer than per week later, he was requested to interview. He began on February 2, practically one 12 months to the day after his preliminary layoff from USDA.
Now Hollowell is making another massive adjustments. He simply put a suggestion on a home, which was accepted. And the entire ordeal prompted him to change from being Republican to an unbiased.
Similarly, Kit Rees, a former investigator on the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, additionally accepted the administration’s second deferred resignation provide and ended their tenure within the federal authorities in September.
Rees’ journey to securing a full-time job of their discipline has been troublesome and tiring, they instructed NCS.
Before their federal paychecks stopped, Rees started piecing collectively no matter work they may discover. They picked up a job at an ACE Hardware retailer in May 2025 and located part-time work with a restoration development firm, filling in on job websites when it wanted extra assist.
The jobs didn’t pay practically as a lot as their federal authorities wage but it surely gave Rees the psychological break they stated they wanted.
“It was healing, lifting mulch, helping people match screws and working through house projects,” Rees stated. The customer support job allowed them to speak “to dozens of people,” and people conversations reminded them “that tragedies don’t happen to everybody.”
However, struggling to pay the payments, Rees took out a $15,000 mortgage.
Just weeks away from asking their household for monetary assist, Rees secured a job of their discipline earlier this month.
“It’s more than a $30,000 pay cut. But it’s still the best offer that I’ve gotten,” they instructed NCS.
Rees stated they’re cautious about feeling relieved after securing the job.
After accepting a deferred resignation provide, Steve Leibman says he was fortunate to be on the level of his profession the place he didn’t really feel quick stress to take a brand new job instantly. He took some consulting work and helped a non-profit, but it surely was his trek on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania that modified his perspective on his subsequent actual transfer.
Leibman – who labored remotely from the Boston space on the US Digital Service, which later formally changed into DOGE – is now enrolled in a trainer license program at Harvard University. The program is a one-year grasp’s diploma, after which he hopes to show highschool math.
“A big part of it was just interacting with people whose perspective of the world are just different and gives a different view of how can you have impact in the world,” Liebman instructed NCS about his journey.
Meanwhile, David Schwark started in search of one other job when a courtroom order introduced him again to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Cleveland after he had been laid off in March 2025. He was unsure when he can be formally let go.
The Department of Education was the second hardest hit company within the federal authorities overhaul, dropping 49% of its workers, in accordance with OPM. Meanwhile, companies which can be the next precedence for Trump had been shielded. For occasion, staffing on the Department of Homeland Security solely dipped 11%.
Schwark, who was a prosecutor earlier than he joined the Department of Education, is now a Justice of the Peace in a neighborhood municipal courtroom in Lakewood, Ohio.
“It’s a lot different. I loved my job with Ed,” Schwark instructed NCS. “It’s been a big shift to go back to dealing with criminal law and being in the court room for a long time.”
When Cameron Hilaker was laid off as an emergency supervisor at USAID, his spouse was six-months pregnant with their first born. Their son is now eight months outdated and Hilaker nonetheless has not discovered work. He has defaulted to being a stay-at-home-dad.
“I’m very happy to be a stay-at-home dad, don’t get me wrong by any means, but this was never anywhere in our sketch of what our life would look like.”
Hilaker says his household is de facto beginning to really feel the crunch financially and are contemplating shifting out of Washington, DC, for a greater cost-of-living.
“I feel burned by Elon Musk and DOGE,” Hilaker, a member of AFGE Local 1534 union, instructed NCS. “They came in, they said they were going to slash and burn the federal government, they were going to reduce the deficit.”
For Vi Le, a former behavioral scientist and violence prevention researcher on the CDC, discovering a brand new position has turn out to be its personal full-time job.
She has a small contract associated to violence prevention, however it’s not sufficient to switch her earlier wage. Until she finds a job in her discipline, Le instructed NCS that she is making an attempt to develop a pastime enterprise designing floral preparations for occasions.
“For now, flowers might be the full-time job, and my career might be the hobby,” Le stated.
After dropping his DC-based contractor job at USAID, Nathan Karrel stated he “went straight into survival mode.” He discovered a brand new position with town of Tucson, Arizona, the place he knew no one – and moved there “sight unseen.”
“I’m not in international development anymore, which was my plan,” stated Karrel, 42. “But I really love Tucson, except for the heat. It’s a whole different culture than DC. The food scene is amazing. The people are kind, and the mountains are great. Now I know all about mesquite trees and cacti.”
He is one among a number of federal staff who instructed NCS that the Trump-era cuts had been so disruptive to their lives that they moved throughout the nation – highlighting the nationwide impression of DOGE, which affected communities far past DC the place the majority of federal staff dwell.
CivicMatch, a jobs platform that connected practically 190 former federal staff to new jobs final 12 months at state and native governments, stated roughly 33% of these folks moved to a brand new state, and 10% did cross-country strikes.
One of those folks moved all the way in which from DC to Honolulu, Hawaii. An worker from the Department of Interior moved from Pennsylvania to Oregon. A federal well being official moved from Texas to Richmond, Virginia.
“As the federal government retrenches, the work obviously does not disappear. It shifts to cities and states,” CivicMatch founder Caitlin Lewis stated. “This has become a talent redistribution engine, to the benefit of local governments. Federal workers were desperate to continue serving.”
Lucas King, 36, who was additionally a USAID contractor, relocated from DC to Idaho, the place he grew up. He beforehand managed a few of USAID’s largest tasks in Africa, together with initiatives from Trump’s first time period. Now he oversees permits and inspections for Ketchum, Idaho, a ski city with 3,600 residents.
“I wasn’t getting traction in DC, so we moved back to Idaho,” King stated. “My new boss was clear that this was kind of a step down, given my experience. It was traumatic, but it worked out. I feel lucky that I found a place to live, a good employer, with good benefits, and I’m back with family and friends.”
The DOGE layoffs additionally despatched Nathaniel Haight on a path nearer to household.
He began as an intern at USAID in 2015, and labored his approach up over 10 years, dealing with grants and contracts. But after getting swept up within the dismantling of USAID, he forged a large internet throughout his job search, wanting far past DC, so he might begin offering once more for his spouse and 4 kids.
He landed a brand new position dealing with grants for town of Indianapolis, which got here as a aid. His mother and father and 4 siblings dwell in Indiana. His youngsters needed to swap to new colleges, however they now have a lot deeper bonds with their cousins, he stated.
“I found a new job in public service, much closer to my parents and siblings,” Haight stated. “I’m seeing a lot of positives that have come out of it.”
After being positioned on administrative depart from USAID, Julianne Weis started going to Capitol Hill to emphasize the impacts of the company’s funding cuts and advocate for international support to be restored. She co-founded Aid on the Hill, a volunteer advocacy group.
Weis labored in USAID’s international well being bureau, significantly within the areas of household planning and reproductive well being. She finally was formally terminated from the company as a part of discount in pressure efforts.
These days, Weis spends most of her week assembly with congressional staffers — generally nearly and different occasions, taking her youngsters alongside to Capitol Hill.
Weis shall be beginning a full-time job quickly, and she or he shared with NCS that she plans on having “a side role in helping” Aid on the Hill in her personal time.
Similarly, as Deborah Kaliel – who labored at USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS – searches for a job, she is dedicating her time as a volunteer for Crisis in Care, a fundraising effort she co-founded to offer assist for HIV providers in different international locations.
“That has kind of taken over my life,” Kaliel instructed NCS. She added: “It’s been really rewarding and, and a really wonderful way for me to stay engaged with the topic and the people and the communities that I’m most passionate about.”