The job market is ‘frozen.’ That’s not a good sign for DOGE casualties

The Trump administration’s culling of government programs and agencies has resulted in an unprecedented wave of federal workers joining the ranks of job seekers — and new data shows a spike in job applications from agencies impacted by the Department of Government Efficiency.

The Trump administration’s culling of government programs and agencies has resulted in an unprecedented wave of federal workers joining the ranks of job seekers — and new data shows a spike in job applications from agencies impacted by the Department of Government Efficiency. Those job hunts are coming at a time when rising uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s economic agenda is clouding businesses’ decision-making and further slowing hiring — especially for specialized and white-collar roles. They’re entering a labor market that’s “a little bit frozen,” but stable for now, noted Allison Shrivastava, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. That was underscored in new data released Thursday by the Labor Department: Initial claims for unemployment benefits aren’t spiking — in fact, they’re mostly unchanged from last week. There were an estimated 224,000 initial claims for jobless benefits for the week ended March 22, a decline of 1,000 from the prior week’s upwardly revised tally. The closely watched Labor Department report also showed that more federal workers are filing for unemployment than in the past; however, they aren’t escalating on a weekly basis.