And so it begins. Hard times are coming. I have so many friends in federal contracting (mostly HHS contracts), and they are all worried.
https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2025/02/07/abt-global-usaid-contractor-layoffs-trump-rubio.html
USAID contractor Abt Global laying off 241 workers in Maryland
Abt Global Inc. in Rockville said in a Work Adjustment and Training Notification with the Maryland Department of Labor that it is laying off 241 employees in the state, effective April 1.
The WARN filing is dated Monday (
https://labor.maryland.gov/employment/warn.shtml) and was posted to the state Department of Labor website Friday morning, a day after the Trump administration reportedly canceled 800 contracts and awards administered through USAID and told USAID officials that all but just a few hundred of the agency’s 10,000 employees worldwide would be be put on leave.
Those moves came roughly two weeks after the administration paused all foreign aid for at least 90 days and ordered the State Department to conduct “a government-wide, comprehensive review” of how aid money is being spent...
Abt Global, whose contracts with USAID total hundreds of millions of dollars each year, is at least the fourth local federal contractor with ties to the agency to announce layoffs or furloughs in recent days (
https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2025/02/03/usaid-chemonics-credence-layoffs-furloughs.html).
DAI Global in Bethesda said in a WARN filing that it furloughed nearly 400 employees (
https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2025/02/06/dai-global-furloughs-usaid-trump.html), while D.C.’s Chemonics International has furloughed 600 and Credence Management Solutions LLC in McLean has laid off close to 400 staffers, employees at those firms told the Business Journal’s Nate Doughty this week.