Why terminated Federal workers refuse to seek private jobs

Last Tuesday, April 29, the Wall Street Journal carried a lengthy article headlined as “Former Federal Employees Left Waiting.” The essence of the article is that the tens of thousands of federal workers terminated in the wake of President Donald Trump’s efficiency review (the Department of Government Efficiency – DOGE) are having a difficult time finding new employment:

“State and local governments rolled out the red carpet to federal workers who were laid off en masse this year. “But months after losing their jobs, many federal applicants are still waiting to get through the door.”

The reason for the difficulty may be encapsulated by the following comment:

“’I’ve not gotten one single call from anyone yet,’ said Aeron Miller, 47 years old, who has applied for county and state jobs in Maryland. Miller was in the Air Force for several years, then worked in civilian jobs for the federal government for about 20 years. She took a buyout in February rather than returning to the office, which would have meant a commute of up to two hours.”

The over riding element in this article is that a significantly large number of those who have lost their jobs in the federal government are restricting their search for new employment to other levels of state and local governments. The article even supplies a reason, although it a demonstrably superficial and false reason:

“State and local governments have long struggled to fill open jobs, hobbled by low pay and slow hiring processes. It tends to get easier for them when conditions elsewhere worsen. Applications with states, cities and counties have jumped since 2023, as private-sector hiring for white-collar workers cooled, according to data from Neogov, which runs the jobs site Governmentjobs.com.” (Emphasis supplied)

While the wages paid to public employees may be marginally lower than their private sector equivalents, the benefit packages more than make up for the initial disparity. Healthcare is provided without employee participation. Retirement benefits are generous and guaranteed by taxpayers. And those benefits vest earlier than in the private sector allowing public employees to double and even triple tip on government pensions. A summary of a 2024 comparison by the Congressional Budget Office noted:

“Compared with private-sector employees, the average compensation costs for federal employees in 2022 were greater among workers whose education culminated in a bachelor’s degree or less, but lower among workers with more education.”

The historic excuse that public employees traded low wages for job security is no longer true – I mean the part about “low wages.” When looking at the accompany charts it demonstrates that for workers with less than a university bachelors degrees that the compensation package for public employees is far more generous than private sector employees. Given that only about one fourth of the workforce has a bachelors degree or more, that would suggest that the baloney about pay disparity is just that – baloney. Those with bachelors degrees in both public and private employment are about equal when you compare both compensation and benefits. So what is the real reason that terminated federal employees are limiting their search to other governmental jobs?

What the studies cannot and did not measure is the very disparate nature of the employment. In the public sector there is little or no risk of ever losing your employment. Compensation increases are based on longevity on the job without regard to performance and there is no risk that the public employer will ever go out of business – rather it will simply raise taxes. In the private sector, everything is tied to the productivity of the underlying business. In most private sector businesses there are measurable goals, documented performance standards and annual reviews. If the business fails to perform, the business fails and both the employees and the owners are financially punished.

While there is greater risk in private sector employment there is also greater opportunity for advancement although that is waning. In the private sector, there still is the opportunity to rise to the executive ranks. But now, in the public sector we are seeing more and more high political officials – including elected officials – who have spent their entire adult lives working for various levels of local, state and federal governments. If you don’t believe me look at the resumes of Democrat officials in your state. It has become the public employees path to executive companesaton.

The article also fails to recognize that the primary funding sources for Democrat politicians are the various public employees unions such as the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union, etc. In America today there are more public employee unions members that there are union members in the public sector. The fact that they are the principle financing resources for politicians is the reason that they enjoy such ironclad job security.

As the Department of Government Efficiency proceeds with its goal of reducing the size of government, eliminating waste, fraud and corruption and establishing a merit based employment system. Its primary foes will be the public employee unions who benefit enormously from the status quo despite the damage it is causing taxpayers and private enterprise.

Maybe it is time to implement term limits for public employees – at least those in a supervisory level or above.  As it stands right now we are creating a generational attitude that only government protected employment is worth pursuing.