Trump Policies Cut 115,000 D.C.-Area Jobs, Driving Black Employment Down 6 Points
Updated
Updated · WTOP · May 18
Trump Policies Cut 115,000 D.C.-Area Jobs, Driving Black Employment Down 6 Points
1 articles · Updated · WTOP · May 18
115,000 fewer jobs were recorded in the Washington region by March than before Trump returned to office, including 54,000 lost federal positions, according to a new Economic Policy Institute study.
Black workers were hit hardest: their employment-to-population rate fell 6 percentage points, versus a 3.2-point drop for the region overall, pushing Black employment to pandemic-era lows.
The study ties the losses not only to federal layoffs but also to cuts at contractors, nonprofits and research institutions that depended on government funding.
Public-sector concentration helps explain the disparity, the report said, because Black workers make up a larger share of government employment, long a key route to middle-class jobs amid private-sector discrimination.
Regionwide, the 3.2-point employment decline was eight times the change for the U.S. as a whole, underscoring how sharply Trump-era policy shifts have hit the D.C. economy.
With public sector jobs declining, how can historic pathways to the middle class for minority workers be preserved or replaced?
If federal agencies stop tracking workforce data, how will we measure progress toward employment equality in the future?
As D.C.'s economy shifts from federal jobs, what new industries will fill the void and reshape the city's future?
The 2025–2026 Federal Workforce Purge: Economic Fallout and Racial Disparities in the D.C. Metro Area
Overview
Between 2025 and 2026, the Trump administration's push to reduce the federal workforce led to the loss of about 300,000 federal jobs, with tens of thousands of staffers receiving termination emails in early 2025. This sharp contraction hit the Greater Washington and Northern Virginia region especially hard, causing total employment in D.C. to fall by 6,000 over the year. While the public sector added a few jobs, the private sector lost even more, deepening local instability. These job cuts triggered economic ripple effects, straining the labor market and reducing household spending, with impacts expected to last well into 2026.