Citizens hold a rally at the entrance to Arches National Park to voice opposition to the termination of approximately 1,000 probationary National Park Service employees by the Department of the Interior inn February as part of a broader federal workforce reduction. Photo by Bob Strong/UPI | License Photo
March 25 (UPI) — The threat of termination by the Department of Government Efficiency has resulted in a swell of job applications from federal workers, according to a report by job platform Indeed Tuesday.
Since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January, applications from employees of several government agencies ballooned by over 50%. At the end of February, the number of applications filled out by federal workers was 75% above their 2022 levels, as announced Tuesday by Indeed.
Employees of agencies like the United States Agency for International Development, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Agriculture and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau make up a significant portion of that spike of job seekers.
DOGE has actively targeted the staff of several federal agencies as it seeks to reduce the size of the federal government.
The Indeed report described federal workers as a “generally well-educated and highly specialized segment” of the overall national workforce, and that “the recent surge in job search activity” among these workers “is unprecedented,” and “while it is fairly common to see a slight uptick in this activity amongst federal workers after most presidential inaugurations,” the increases that occurred after the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections do not correspond to current statistics.
Indeed also reports that flexible work arrangements are key for federal workers, who often put terms like “remote” and “work from home” into their job searches. “Hiring immediately” and “part-time” are also commonly searched terms among federal employees, as are job titles like “contract specialist” and “policy analyst.”
The job title that has grown the fastest among job seekers according to Indeed is “horticulture,” which increased by 27 times in February 2025 compared to February 2024 amid layoffs at the USDA.