American Military News by Harriet Blair Rowan - The Mercury News 1/25/2025
In his first days in office, President Donald Trump signed executive orders that sent many federal employees reeling: looming layoffs, a freeze on federal hiring and and new back-to-office expectations for many remote workers. On Wednesday, he announced that employees in diversity, equity and inclusion roles would be put on paid leave.
He’s vowed to do much more, tapping Tesla CEO Elon Musk to run a new Department of Government Efficiency.
While the White House sits more than 2,000 miles from the Golden State, the commander-in-chief’s actions stand to affect plenty of Californians. About 250,000 federal workers live in California, including tens of thousands in the Bay Area.
Only Virginia and the District of Columbia had more civilian federal workers than California last year, according to data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, closely followed by Maryland.
“It’s the great unknown,” said Bobbie Scopa, a retired firefighter and former chief with decades of experience in the U.S. Forest Service. She now advocates for federal firefighters. While past hiring freezes have not affected the fire services directly, “everything seems to be a little bit different this time,” she said.
The federal government is one of the largest employers in the country, with just over 3 million employees. They work for federal agencies such as the Forest Service, NASA, FEMA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Postal Service.
An estimated 38,000 federal workers live in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, according to data from California’s Employment Development Department.
More:
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2025/01/californias-250000-federal-employees-await-fate-as-trump-roils-civil-service/
