Elon Musk, head of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency team, speaks to reporters at the White House with President Donald Trump, right, on Feb. 11, 2025. White House photo
The massive wave of federal layoffs is starting to have a modest but noticeable impact on Massachusetts residents, the Healey administration indicated after launching a website Friday to connect fired workers with other public and private job opportunities in the commonwealth.
The state Department of Unemployment Assistance has received 271 federal claims since Feb. 9, according to a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Department. That compares to the 58 federal unemployment insurance claims that DUA fielded in February 2024.
The new unemployment data represent a small fraction of the more than 46,000 federal employees in Massachusetts, who work in sectors including public administration, education, transportation, warehousing and the postal service. But more layoffs are in the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency pipeline, with more than 80,000 workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs expected to lose their jobs as early as June, according to Reuters.
The EOLWD spokesperson noted the unemployment claims so far represent a snapshot of impacted federal workers.
The data captures Bay Staters who filed initial claims, but not those who were fired but have yet to seek unemployment benefits. It also doesn’t account for Bay Staters dealing with “indirect layoffs,” such as researchers in academia who have lost their federal funding.
The EOLWD spokesperson on Monday said the website had garnered more than 10,500 views since it published Friday. A LinkedIn post that included a link to the site had more than 72,000 impressions, the spokesperson said.
The federal layoffs came after the jobless rate in Massachusetts increased one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.2 percent in January, state labor officials said last week. The national unemployment rate in January was an even 4 percent.
