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The long arm of DOGE reaches into Vermont
Jobs Brief
|Jobs, Workers, Wages, Unemployment, Federal Tax & Budget
More than 3,000 Vermonters are caught in the on-again, off-again firings and layoffs of federal employees by the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It is challenging to keep track of who has a job and who doesn’t, or even of which departments still exist.
During the first two months of Trump’s second term, DOGE ordered mass layoffs of federal agency employees. Federal judges reinstated the workers in 19 agencies, including the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and temporarily paused firings. But uncertainty remains as to whether the reinstatements will hold and how long the pause will last—if, that is, the administration complies with the court orders.
According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees the federal workforce, there are over 3,000 federal employees based in Vermont. Of these, roughly 80 percent are at least temporarily protected under the recent court orders; more than 500 Vermonters work for agencies that did not receive protections. The largest federal employers in Vermont are the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Agriculture. These three agencies account for nearly three-quarters of the state’s federal workers and are all protected under the recent court orders.
Notably, the OPM data are not comprehensive. They do not count workers from several federal agencies or departments, including Vermont’s nearly 1,500 postal workers, nor do they count agencies with fewer than four Vermont-based employees.
Vermont’s average annual unemployment rate increased to 2.3 percent in 2024, from 1.9 percent the previous year. Despite the rise, Vermont continued to boast the second-lowest unemployment rate in the country. Last year, the state saw its third-lowest annual unemployment rate since the data were first collected in 1976.
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Thanks for your careful work….always!
Thank you for collecting and publishing this data.
I’m curious: how many Vermont people work for federal grant-related non-profits who would be effected, although not specifically working for a federal program?
What are the related programs & losses–like yesterday’s repeal of federal grants for Vermont food security programs? We know generally, schools, child care centers, other public food programs. Can you find out and be specific? We need to know.
Hello,
Thank you for reaching out regarding Vermonters who work for nonprofits that receive federal funding. While we may not have the specific information you are looking for, we hope the information below is helpful.
Federal funding makes up about 35 percent of Vermont’s budget, or more than $3 billion. This percentage changes from year to year, typically increasing during times of higher need, like COVID-19. This figure only includes funds flowing through the state and does not include discretionary grant funding flowing directly to nonprofits.
The following website allows you to see federal grants and contracts in Vermont by type of recipient, including nonprofits. It may help provide a sense of scale and which nonprofits in the state are receiving federal funds: https://www.usaspending.gov/search/?hash=50c3d48ff8f2d344762cbe3b13008677
The Urban Institute also released data on the number of nonprofits in Vermont receiving federal funds and the total amount of federal funding, including the share of filers with government grants at risk. The data is found here: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/what-financial-risk-nonprofits-losing-government-grants
Courts have ordered a pause on Trump’s federal funding freeze, including discretionary grants for nonprofits. However, there remains a lot of uncertainty around this order, including the general timeline for when funds will be unfrozen, which grant programs are still paused, and even variations in funds frozen for some recipients and not others within the same program. Further complicating this is the mass layoffs at federal agencies, which may also slow the distribution of grant funds. It is also unclear how long the pause on the funding freeze will last.
As far as we know, no entity is currently comprehensively tracking this information. However, we are closely following federal actions and will keep looking into your question. We appreciate your comment and wish we could provide a more direct answer!