#federal-workforce-cuts

#federal-workforce-cuts

Both the October and November job creation numbers, released Tuesday by the Labor Department, came in late because of the 43-day federal government shutdown. The November job gains came in higher than the 40,000 economists had forecast. The October job losses were caused by a 162,000 drop in federal workers, many of whom resigned at the end of fiscal year 2025 on Sept. 30 under pressure from billionaire Elon Musk's purge of U.S. government payrolls.

The deal Congress reached to re-open the federal government requires the Trump administration to reinstate federal workers who were fired in October, including those charged with overseeing the nation's special education laws. But it's not clear how long they'll be back. As NPR has reported, the Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) inside the U.S. Department of Education is the central nervous system for programs that support students with disabilities.

The star of that video, which quickly went viral, was Russell Vought, the president's top budget adviser. More than that, Vought is the architect of Trump's broader plan to fire civil servants, freeze government programs and dismantle entire agencies, and he's a big reason the second Trump administration has been more effective at accomplishing its goals than the first.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who worked closely with Musk during the Tesla CEO's time as the face of the Department of Government Efficiency, expressed disapproval toward how Musk handled firings at DOGE. In an interview with "The Axios Show"that aired on Friday, Lutnick told show host Mike Allen that Musk approached DOGE in the same way he approached Twitter, now X, where he rapidly cut 80% of staff, and that Musk "thought that example worked for government."