The Deindustrialization of DC
Between January and May this year, more than 260,000 U.S. federal government workers have either been laid off, taken early retirement, or accepted buyouts. Thousands more are losing jobs as the Trump administration slashes research grants and funding for social services and non-profits. While the cuts affect people across the country and the world, they hit especially hard in Washington, D.C., where the federal government has always been the largest employer. As the Axios news service put it, the Trump administration is “downsiz[ing] the capital city’s big factory.”