Last spring, Chantel Williams’ position in the federal government was precarious.
Williams, a former General Services Administration hiring team employee, found herself in a state of confusion and anxiety. The agency she worked for had fallen into a maintenance pattern as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency began an effort to aggressively reduce the size and scope of government agencies at the direction of President Donald Trump.
The cuts to DOGE, a pillar of President Trump’s second term, were swift and widespread across the federal workforce. The most affected government agencies include the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education.
“The oath you take as a federal employee is not about the administration, it’s about the job and the role,” Williams said. “I had previously worked at GSA through a transition period, so it started with great surprise that the transition wasn’t as smooth as it used to be.”
Williams said working for the federal government was the first time she felt real confusion.
“It was hard to wake up every day wanting to continue serving but feeling like our leaders had other priorities or were opposed to continuing to move the mission forward,” Williams said.
In the end, she opted for deferred retirement and received a paycheck to leave her government post. She joined thousands of others in the largest federal workforce reduction in history, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
As of the end of 2025, OPM reported that approximately 352,000 employees left their jobs last year, with more than 123,000 of them accepting deferred retirement offers. OPM said in a statement late last year that the move is “aligned with President Trump’s goals for a smaller, more efficient government.”
Caitlin Lewis, founder and director of Work for America, began her career in local government in New York City. Lewis launched the nonprofit in November 2024 and has been helping former federal employees fill new roles across the country following federal workforce cuts last year.
Megan Lee Bernard | Working for America
As federal workers like Williams face mass layoffs and resignations, Caitlin Lewis stepped forward to help.
Her nonprofit, Work for America, was founded in November 2024 to help local governments hire talent to fill talent gaps. Through our Civic Match platform, we help former federal employees find new roles at the state and local level. The Work for America team has grown from two people to 15 people in the last year, the majority of whom have spent their careers in state, local and federal government. The four employees came directly from federal jobs.
“We never imagined there would be so much need,” Lewis said. “What’s so unique about this group of job seekers is how unexpected the layoffs were for many of them. Government has long been a place of stability and meaning, but much of what we understand about government work was profoundly upended in that moment.”
Lewis, the daughter of a forest firefighter and a juvenile prison counselor who grew up in California, said she became involved in social activities at an early age. This effort led her to work in New York City’s local government under Bill de Blasio, first in the mayor’s office and then in housing and economic development. My job in America was born out of that experience.
“We’ve seen in places like New York that when you have the right people in the right roles in government, the public sector can really move mountains, but when you don’t, the fundamentals start to fall apart,” she said. “And unfortunately, we’ve seen this happen in communities across the country where we’re not able to get the right people into critical roles.”
After postponing his resignation, Williams immediately took a job with Work for America. She currently serves as a product and data manager for a nonprofit organization.
Last year, Work for America placed nearly 200 job seekers across the country, 150 of whom were former federal employees. Since President Trump’s election, more than 12,800 job seekers representing more than 30 federal agencies have registered with Civic Match.
“This has been a year of chaos and disruption for many people, but for our customers, cities and state governments across the country, we thought there was a real opportunity to acquire the great talent that would be coming out of Washington,” Lewis said.
Due to significant layoffs at USAID, Nate Haight turned to Civic Match, where he spent his 10-year career. Haight started as an intern, then became a contractor, and by last year was working as an education advisor and contract and grants specialist in the Department of Latin America and the Caribbean. Last February, he was told his job was being considered and that he would likely be made redundant.
“I especially loved working in the education field. It was really rewarding to be able to go out and see the impact our programs were having around the world,” Haight said. “I fell in love with the job and saw the difference it made.”
He knew there would be strong competition locally given the number of other former federal employees looking for work, so he accepted the government’s deferred resignation offer and chose to find a new role through the Work for America platform. He is currently in Indiana with his wife and four children, working as a grants administrator for the City of Indianapolis and Marion County.
“I think I’ve already found satisfaction and fulfillment working in local government. I just want to encourage others to try the same way…and I want everyone to hold their heads up high and know that all the skills and experience they’ve gained will be able to make a huge impact wherever they end up landing,” Haight said of his fellow former federal employees.
In the coming months, Civic Match will roll out new features including artificial intelligence-powered candidate match scores, improved job targeting, city-specific pages, and more.
Hope Lahill, a former Biden administration political appointee, left her position at the start of the Trump administration and is now director of human resources and culture at Work for America. Rahil said that while the organization has been successful in introducing candidates, many former workers are still looking for work and a year of “unemployment or underemployment” is approaching.
“There are still a lot of people looking for work,” Rahil said.
