More federal workers are flooding the job market, with worsening prospects

After Matt Minich was fired from his job with the Food and Drug Administration in February, he did what many scientists have done for years after leaving public service. He looked for a position with a university.

Minich, 38, was one of thousands swept up in the mass layoffs of probationary workers at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second administration. The shock of those early moves heralded more upheaval to come as the Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, raced through agency after agency, slashing staff, freezing spending and ripping up government contracts.

In March, about 45 minutes after Minich accepted a job as a scientist in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, the program lost its federal grant funding.