Greater Bethesda Chamber Commerce

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Friday announced new resources for federal workers who lose their jobs, including an effort to recruit them to state jobs, amid Trump administration cuts that could leave more than 10,000 Marylanders out of work.

3/4/2025

Maryland's pitch to fired federal workers: Come work for the state Gov. Wes Moore announced resources for people looking for new jobs.

By Katie Shepherd and Katie Mettler
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Friday announced new resources for federal workers who lose their jobs, including an effort to recruit them to state jobs, amid Trump administration cuts that could leave more than 10,000 Marylanders out of work.
"This is not patriotism," Moore said, referring to the firing of thousands of federal workers in recent weeks. "This is cruelty."
Standing in Annapolis with other state leaders and a federal worker who lost his job with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Feb. 18, the governor pitched several paths for federal employees who may be looking for work.
Those civil servants could come work for the state of Maryland, which has about 250 job postings and about 5,200 vacancies overall. They could join a pilot program, soon to be created by the state Transportation Department, that would help translate their public service work experience to state jobs across several state agencies.
Individuals could seek a teaching certification and take on a second career as an educator, Moore said. This would be a boon to a state that needs 12,000 to 15,000 more teachers to meet its ambitious goals to overhaul education.
The state will host virtual and in-person job fairs in Prince George's County and Baltimore, Moore said. A newly launched website points unemployed Marylanders to resources, including more than 130,000 job openings across the state. Moore also ordered the Maryland Department of Budget and Management to streamline the state job-application process so applications could be considered quickly.
The governor's announcement Friday aims to fix two pervasive challenges facing Maryland: a high vacancy rate in the state workforce and a looming unemployment crisis for federal workers caught up in President Donald Trump's mass layoffs.
In October 2022, the year Moore was elected, nearly 6,500 state jobs were vacant, according to an analysis from the state Department of Budget and Management. One of Moore's primary campaign promises was to rebuild the state workforce, which had shrunk under the administration of Gov. Larry Hogan (R). AB of January 2025, the vacancy rate had fallen to 5,222, even as the Moore administration added more jobs to the overall workforce.
In a statement, AFSCME Maryland, the union that represents state employees, said it supported the governor's effort to recruit laid-off federal employees into state jobs. The union called on the state to "fully fund" the state's hiring process, which has been criticized for moving too slow.
Moore's plan mirrors similar efforts in other states, including Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) this week touted a website advertising job openings even as he defended Trump's workforce cuts. Democratic governors in Hawaii, New York and New Mexico are also trying to recruit former federal workers to their states.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) joined Moore on Friday and voiced his support for former federal workers who are waiting to see whether federal courts will intervene to reverse or stop their terminations. Van Hollen said the firings were bound to disrupt services that Americans count on, and often don't even realize the government is doing, until a crisis occurs.
"Until something goes wrong, people don't realize the good work that's being done," Van Hollen said. "But I'll tell you, when that good work stops, things will go wrong."