Unemployment claims from fired or laid-off federal workers in Washington state doubled from this time last year, according to new data from the state Employment Security Department.
The data, released Thursday, offers one of the first glimpses into the scale of the federal worker firings in Washington, as President Donald Trump pushes to slash the federal workforce.
As of Wednesday, 952 federal workers had applied for unemployment benefits in Washington since the start of the year, compared to 472 in the same period last year.
The top 10 counties where federal workers are employed:
- Kitsap, 21,145.
- King, 18,917.
- Pierce, 11,389.
- Spokane, 5,132.
- Clark, 3,941.
- Snohomish, 2,524.
- Walla Walla, 1,902.
- Whatcom, 1,581.
- Island, 1,370.
- Yakima, 1,298.
The pace of unemployment claims has increased in the last few weeks, as Trump has given Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency broad authority to fire workers from a sprawling list of federal agencies.
From Jan. 1 to Feb. 13, a period that included the end of the Biden administration and the first three weeks of the Trump administration, about 10 federal workers per day filed unemployment claims in Washington. But since Feb. 13, the number has shot up to an average of 25 federal workers per day.
The top 10 counties where those impacted federal employees live are:
- King County, 207 claims.
- Pierce County, 82.
- Kitsap County, 59.
- Clark County, 54.
- Spokane County, 47.
- Snohomish County, 39.
- Thurston County, 35.
- Whatcom County, 34.
- Chelan County, 30.
- Clallam County, 28.
The Trump administration and the federal agencies it oversees have not offered clear answers on how many federal employees have been fired, where and from what parts of the government.
“We are not being given information from the agencies,” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said last month about the firings. “I have worked with Republican and Democratic administrations throughout my long career, we’ve always been able to talk to the agencies.”
The unemployment data from Washington’s Employment Security Department indicates that firings have not been carried out evenly across the government.
The most unemployment claims have come from the Department of Agriculture (190 claims) and the Department of the Interior (116 claims), which oversees national parks. Unemployment claims from the Department of Agriculture represent nearly one-third of the department’s 600 workers in Washington. Neither department is even in the top 10 for federal employers in Washington.
Raymond Beaupre used to work for the U.S. Forest Service coordinating volunteers to help maintain trails in the Methow Valley before he was fired last month. He worked clearing trails with chain saws, maintaining drainage and building restrooms and other structures, often hauling materials in and out with horses and mules.
“These recent firings are a disaster for public lands,” Beaupre said this week, at a news conference organized by Murray.
The top federal employer in Washington, the Department of Defense, had only 29 former workers file unemployment claims this year.
The Treasury Department, the Postal Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs have seen the third-, fourth- and fifth-highest numbers of unemployment claims in the state.
There are about 76,000 federal employees in Washington, including military members.
The unemployment claims have largely been spread evenly across the state. The counties with the most claims from federal workers mostly mirror a list of the state’s largest counties, with Kitsap County slightly overrepresented and Snohomish County slightly underrepresented.
