Democratic governors pitch state jobs to federal workers cut by Trump

ALBANY, N.Y. (news agencies) — Some of America’s governors — mostly Democrats — have a message for the wave of fired federal workers: We want you.

The governors are welcoming former federal staffers who lost their jobs in the Trump administration’s widespread cost-cutting agenda to apply for government jobs in their states. Some places are holding job fairs, while Hawaii’s governor says the state is fast-tracking hiring for these applicants.

The effort amounts to a small level of resistance against the Republican president and potentially a bit of political maneuvering from the leaders in blue states, eager to be seen as the party helping workers in need. In most cases, the governors are trying to fill up long lists of job openings in their states, and in some the effort involved simply directing people to an online jobs page.

But if it ends up helping laid-off workers get new jobs, the outreach could be a way for the politicians to win over voters ahead of elections at home — as well as to troll Trump.

“The federal government might say, ‘You’re fired,’ but here in New York, we say, ‘You’re hired.’ In fact, we love federal workers,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement this week while announcing a recruitment effort to hire ex-federal workers.

The job cuts, carried out by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency with the stated goal of slashing bloated government bureaucracy, have already hit vast swaths of the federal government.

There is no exact list on the total number of firings but the job losses are estimated to be in the thousands and have reached just about every part of the country, given that the large majority of the federal government’s 2.4 million civilian workers are based outside of Washington.

Hochul’s announcement contained a link to the state’s existing online jobs website, which offered no additional material for federal workers who have lost their jobs. Her office later said there are efforts to set up an enhanced jobs website for the former federal workers.

Hawaii Democratic Gov. Josh Green has gone a little further, signing an executive order this month to fast-track hiring to help the state employ newly laid-off federal workers. The initiative accelerates hiring so qualified candidates can receive a conditional job offer within 14 days.

Green said his state needs conservationists, engineers, nurses, information technology professionals, accountants and others.

Hawaii has about 4,000 open positions across state government, or about 24% of its civil service positions. The state’s labor department also had a job fair last week to scoop up some federal workers and plans another this week in Honolulu.

Colin Moore, a University of Hawaii political science professor, said the state has difficulty filling positions because it often pays less than the private sector and the federal government.

“There’s no way that state of Hawaii could lose,” Moore said. “There’s going to be a large number of highly skilled federal employees that the state would probably not be in a position to hire away from the federal government but for all of these layoffs.”

In New Mexico, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has encouraged former federal workers to apply for unemployment insurance and attend job recruitment events held by state agencies, as well as state-sponsored job training and educational opportunities.

State agencies can only provide hiring preferences to military veterans, but the governor shared a website with guidance for federal workers on how to file unemployment insurance claims, a hotline number to talk with a state government recruiter, along with information on career training and college scholarships.

In Virginia, which is home to a large number of federal workers and other voters who this year will elect a new governor, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is reaching out. He announced a new jobs page that includes both public and private openings, as well as a separate page meant help ex-federal workers in Virginia apply for unemployment, prepare for their job hunts, among other resources.

Youngkin, in a speech announcing the program, said that the federal government needs to become more financially efficient and that change is necessary, but added that the “workforce is not at fault.”

Youngkin is term limited but his growing national profile has stirred speculation about a future run for president. Virginia voters this year also will elect a new lieutenant governor, attorney general and all 100 members of the House of Delegates.

“We have a lot of federal workers in the Commonwealth, and I want to make sure that they know we care about them and we value them,” Youngkin said. “And we want them to find that next chapter should they experience job dislocation here in Virginia because we have that next great opportunity for them.”