Approximately 90,000 people across the United States lost their jobs in March, and roughly a third were in the federal government, making last month the worst for job losses since January 2023.
However, a new rule introduced by the Biden administration aims at protecting the jobs of civil servants in the federal government, which goes against the plans former President Donald Trump has should he return to office.
"Career federal employees deliver critical services for Americans in every community," said U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja. "This final rule honors our 2.2 million career civil servants, helping ensure that people are hired and fired based on merit and that they can carry out their duties based on their expertise and not political loyalty."
Trump intends to fire tens of thousands of career civil servants in the federal government and replace them with loyalists if he returns to the White House—part of the far-right initiative Project 2025, aimed at consolidating Trump's power and avoiding any obstacles to the goals which he hopes to accomplish.
"President Biden's action reinforces and clarifies federal employees' due process rights and civil service protections, strengthening the apolitical civil service and hampering efforts to return the government to a corrupt spoils system," said American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelle.
"President Biden's predecessor and other conservatives have made clear," added Kelle. "They would support stripping hundreds of thousands of federal employees of their civil service rights and protections and turning them into at-will workers who could be hired or fired at any time for political reasons."
