Are laid off fed workers and contractors having a hard time finding a new job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: BLS, the stat agencies all lost a lot of people, but no RIFs or firing of probationaries so far to my knowledge.

A lot of people took DRP or VERA though, for a few reasons. A large cohort of people were close to retirement age. Loss of telework was also big, as many people had been mostly WFH before COVID, and Census in particular had been fully remote for nearly 5 years while their building was renovated. For BLS, a lot of people didn't want to change their commute to Suitland (Former HQ was next to Union Station).

Also, a bunch of senior leadership who deal with the Decennial Census left, presumably because they didn't want to go through a repeat of how the admin tried to politicize the 2020 Census.

The job market for statisticians and economists is OK, there are private sector employers that pay more money, and it's historically been easy for good people to pivot. The thing is, most people at the stat agencies don't really want those private sector jobs, they want to contribute to public statistics and knowledge. The other ways to do that (like academia or think tanks) are all hurting right now, and they depend heavily on stat agency data that might just go away if too many people leave. So people either left right away, or they are hunkered down and planning to ride it out.

What private sector employers hire labor economists? I thought they mostly focused on macro/financial economists?

Labor economists are the best econometricians. Their skills are very transferrable even if they weren't in technical role. I work for a consulting firm and we recently hired a guy who worked as labor economist (he only has a Bachelor's degree) for 10 years for the UK government. This guy is amazing. We do a lot of time series macroeconometrics. He was able to fit in and contribute right away.

[Anonymous]

Curious where all the statisticians that have left the govt are getting hired at?

[Anonymous]

I retired actually a year before the DOGE mess. I was 58 I always wanted to work part- time. I’ve applied for some very part-time easy jobs - think libraries, schools.

Nothing. Age discrimination is very real. It’s upsetting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BLS and other data agencies were not spared, and a lot of people are worried about the quality of analysis going forward. Earlier this year BLS said it would stop collecting a few kinds of data and instead infer it, which has implications for accuracy.

So Statisticians and economists were fired as well?

There is a shortage of enumerators which are people that gather pricing data, they are not statistician or economists.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Its abysmal

[Anonymous]

A ton of those private sector companies rely on gov’t funds that aren’t there anymore.

How many of you are also thinking that it might be time to leave DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I retired actually a year before the DOGE mess. I was 58 I always wanted to work part- time. I’ve applied for some very part-time easy jobs - think libraries, schools.

Nothing. Age discrimination is very real. It’s upsetting

yep, which is why DH and I have always planned on retiring early. I'm still working at 55; DH was laid off at 59.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired actually a year before the DOGE mess. I was 58 I always wanted to work part- time. I’ve applied for some very part-time easy jobs - think libraries, schools.

Nothing. Age discrimination is very real. It’s upsetting

yep, which is why DH and I have always planned on retiring early. I'm still working at 55; DH was laid off at 59.

That was easier for you boomers and older GenX — you bought homes when they were CHEAP.

The rest of us had to burn money on rent and expensive mortgages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BLS and other data agencies were not spared, and a lot of people are worried about the quality of analysis going forward. Earlier this year BLS said it would stop collecting a few kinds of data and instead infer it, which has implications for accuracy.

So Statisticians and economists were fired as well?

FHFA RIFed almost all of their economists and statisticians. The whole division was decimated in March.

Yeah. This post and many of the replies seem completely out of touch with what's happening.

The Department of Education's entire stats and research arm is gone. There are a small handful of people with a leader, from Trump 1.0 times still there doing 3 jobs. Everyone else is gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired actually a year before the DOGE mess. I was 58 I always wanted to work part- time. I’ve applied for some very part-time easy jobs - think libraries, schools.

Nothing. Age discrimination is very real. It’s upsetting

yep, which is why DH and I have always planned on retiring early. I'm still working at 55; DH was laid off at 59.

That was easier for you boomers and older GenX — you bought homes when they were CHEAP.

The rest of us had to burn money on rent and expensive mortgages.

Gen Xer here. Mortgage rates were 8% in 2000 when we bought our house. That was not easy. We refinanced over the years.

[Anonymous]

I left my contractor IT job yesterday because the task I was assigned to abruptly ended. But I have interviews lined up within my large company for next week. (Company will stick me somewhere to avoid paying severance.) I have a full clearance so that helps.

A lot of my IT contractor friends avoid large employers but it is a plus when contracts end and the company has a fair number of open jobs.

FYI I’m near retirement age too.

[Anonymous]

What is an analyst sounds like a made up govt job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired actually a year before the DOGE mess. I was 58 I always wanted to work part- time. I’ve applied for some very part-time easy jobs - think libraries, schools.

Nothing. Age discrimination is very real. It’s upsetting

yep, which is why DH and I have always planned on retiring early. I'm still working at 55; DH was laid off at 59.

That was easier for you boomers and older GenX — you bought homes when they were CHEAP.

The rest of us had to burn money on rent and expensive mortgages.

Gen Xer here. Mortgage rates were 8% in 2000 when we bought our house. That was not easy. We refinanced over the years.

Yeah 8% for a 50k house gtfo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired actually a year before the DOGE mess. I was 58 I always wanted to work part- time. I’ve applied for some very part-time easy jobs - think libraries, schools.

Nothing. Age discrimination is very real. It’s upsetting

yep, which is why DH and I have always planned on retiring early. I'm still working at 55; DH was laid off at 59.

That was easier for you boomers and older GenX — you bought homes when they were CHEAP.

The rest of us had to burn money on rent and expensive mortgages.

Gen Xer here. Mortgage rates were 8% in 2000 when we bought our house. That was not easy. We refinanced over the years.

Yeah 8% for a 50k house gtfo

Agreed, I hate when my parents say this. Their house cost 1 year of 1 person's salary. Ours cost four times as much relative to income (and that's only because we bought a TH, they have an SFH with land). I'd be happy to pay more interest on 25% of the principal!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired actually a year before the DOGE mess. I was 58 I always wanted to work part- time. I’ve applied for some very part-time easy jobs - think libraries, schools.

Nothing. Age discrimination is very real. It’s upsetting

yep, which is why DH and I have always planned on retiring early. I'm still working at 55; DH was laid off at 59.

That was easier for you boomers and older GenX — you bought homes when they were CHEAP.

The rest of us had to burn money on rent and expensive mortgages.

Gen Xer here. Mortgage rates were 8% in 2000 when we bought our house. That was not easy. We refinanced over the years.

Yeah 8% for a 50k house gtfo

Other GenXer here.

It was 8% on a $270,000 unimpressive townhome with 2 small bedrooms and a 45 minute commute to our jobs (because we couldn’t afford closer). Oh… and we had starting salaries of $30K out of grad school.

Not complaining— but I’m also not going to let you perpetuate the idea that your generation has it so much harder than everyone else.