Federal Workers Are Being Fired by the Thousands. California Wants to Hire Them

The Golden State has a message for federal employees who’ve lost their jobs: Come work for California.

As the Trump administration carries out massive layoffs across federal agencies, California launched an initiative on Friday to recruit those displaced workers to thousands of vacant positions with the state.

Top recruitment priorities for the state’s 3,200 current job openings include firefighters, clinical social workers and psychologists, Monica Erickson, chief deputy director of the California Department of Human Resources, told KQED.

“This is an incredible opportunity for California to be able to get workers that have incredible skill sets that California is looking for,” said Erickson, a state employee for 35 years. “We have great opportunities.”

Tens of thousands of federal workers have been terminated or placed on administrative leave as President Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency shrinks agencies in a quest to reduce spending. Just this week, about 10,000 people were laid off from the Department of Health and Human Services, including hundreds at a San Francisco office that was shut down.

Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered CalHR to take steps to recruit laid-off federal employees. That includes a new resource website that aims to help former or current federal workers better understand California’s job application process and find openings that match their skills, particularly in fields such as firefighting, weather forecasting, science, and medical and mental health.

“California values the skillset and experience federal workers bring to public service — and we want them to know that there is a place for them here in the Golden State,” Newsom said in a statement. “Recruiting these experienced professionals to fill key job openings in a variety of fields can help us now and into the future.”

California is joining other states that are wooing former federal employees to fill jobs within their ranks. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said a “You’re Hired” campaign that started in February has drawn more than 1,300 job applications to state agencies and hired 28 candidates with federal work experience.

According to the Hawaii Department of Human Resources Development, the state has hired 12 former federal workers, with more in the pipeline, after receiving more than 2,200 applications since February.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green ordered the state to expedite its hiring process for federal workers, a step California has not yet taken, according to Erickson.

“We’re certainly trying to focus on our federal workforce and bring them over by providing resources to them, videos to make it easy to hire, but the process is the same,” Erickson said.

Applicants who’ve self-identified as being affected by federal job cuts have created 165 online accounts to apply for California state jobs since March 7, when CalHR started tracking this information. The agency does not know how many of these applicants have been hired, according to a spokesperson.

California’s new one-stop website for federal employees features guides to navigate the application process, examples of state positions that may have federal equivalency and a look at benefits available to California state workers such as employee pensions.

CalHR will hold a virtual training on Thursday tailored to former federal employees on how to apply for a state job, as well as future hiring events.