"Job Growth in the Private-Sector, Massive Job Losses at Federal & State Governments in H2 2025
by Wolf Richter • Jan 9, 2026 • 59 Comments
The Fed should look at private-sector employment. Layoffs at the government are a political decision, not the result of economic weakness.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
The job losses at the federal government and at state governments have hit nonfarm employment all year, and hard. In 2025, the federal government shed 274,000 jobs, and state governments shed 45,000 jobs, combined 319,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics today.

In December, as well as in November, federal government jobs edged up, possibly on large-scale hiring by ICE, after the plunge in October when the federal government shed an upwardly revised 179,000 workers, largely the result of workers who’d volunteered to quit earlier in the year but who, as part of their incentives to quit, had continued to receive their salaries until September 30. Civilian employment at the federal government in December and November, at 2.74 million, was the lowest since 2014."

...not really new news, but lots of details and charts.