Most in DC area say they’ve been hurt by federal job cuts, furloughs: Gallup

A majority of residents in the Washington, D.C., area have been negatively impacted by the Trump administration’s federal job cuts , according to a new survey.

More than half, 55 percent, of 2,801 residents in D.C. and nearby suburbs said their household was negatively affected by the reduction in the federal workforce in the past year, as reported by the Greater Washington Community Foundation and Gallup.

In D.C. alone, two-thirds of residents reported being negatively impacted by the cuts , while 62 percent of those living in Arlington County and Alexandria, Va., said they bore negative consequences.

Across the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) region, 41 percent of residents said the federal job cuts did not affect them and just 4 percent said the workforce reductions benefitted them.

The administration’s since-shuttered Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, carried out a government-wide workforce reduction in the early months of President Trump’s second term.

Via DOGE’s efforts, federal agencies laid off thousands of workers and offered buyouts to others. But the federal government rehired hundreds of employees last fall, while others maintained their jobs thanks to litigation.

The federal workforce has dipped from more than 2.3 million in 2024 to slightly more than 2 million this year, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Roughly one-third of federal employees worked at the Defense Department, with the Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, Justice and Treasury departments rounding out the top five largest agencies, per data from the Office of Personnel Management .

DOGE claimed it saved $215 billion , amounting to roughly $1,335 saved per U.S. taxpayer. But an increasing number of D.C.-area residents reported increased economic strain over the past year, according to the report by Gallup and the Greater Washington Community Foundation.

Roughly 2 in 10 district residents reported accessing social services for the first time in the past year, while 14 percent of DMV residents reported doing so. In Prince George’s County, Md., 23 percent of residents said they used social services for the first time.

Black and Hispanic residents of the broader region — at 25 percent and 20 percent, respectively — were also more likely to access social services than the 6 percent of white residents and 12 percent of Asian residents who did so.

“This region has real strength, and real strain, and both are true at the same time,” Tonia Wellons, the Greater Washington Community Foundation’s president, said in a press release. “Residents told us exactly where they need help: housing, jobs, and real investment in their communities.”

The Gallup survey was conducted from Feb. 9 to April 6. The margin of error for the entire sample of 2,801 adults was 2.6 points.