The latest data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that Maryland lost 10,000 federal jobs in October alone and an estimated 10,300 total in October and November of 2025.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore addressed the issue at the start of Wednesday morning’s Board of Public Works meeting in Annapolis. He called the data “sobering,” and said the numbers reflect what he referred to as “the Trump-Vance administration’s so-called ‘Fork in the Road resignations’ that began taking place on Oct. 1.”
From January through November, Moore said, the state lost 25,000 federal jobs.
Referring to President Donald Trump’s statements on problems faced by the country on the campaign trail, Moore said, “Donald Trump ran on a premise that he alone could fix it. What he didn’t tell the American people was that he alone could break it.”
Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman called the numbers “incredibly concerning,” and said they represented “not a thoughtful approach to making government more efficient, but a whack-a-mole attack on important federal services.”
Lierman also said the numbers, while concerning, “are not unexpected.” She said they were “in line with what our Bureau of Revenue Estimates forecast last year.”
Moore said the job losses in the federal sector underscore the need to broaden the state’s employment opportunities.
“Even before this administration took over, we’ve been saying that we’ve got to be able to diversify our economy off of Washington, D.C., off of the traditions of the eds, the feds and the meds,” he said, referring to education, federal government and medical-based jobs.
“We’ve got to start looking toward industries of the future, and we’ve got to make sure we’re diversifying our economy, particularly when you have a partner in Washington, D.C., who is unstable,” Moore added.
Despite the steep job losses in the federal sector, state officials said Maryland did not see a spike in unemployment claims. The state’s unemployment rate did tick upward — from 3.8% to 4.2% — but Lierman and Maryland Treasurer Dereck Davis noted that the state’s unemployment rate remains below the national average of 4.6%.
“While it’s bad news, it wasn’t unexpected news. That’s the takeaway,” Davis said, referring to the labor data.
