Kansas City is taking steps to help the thousands of people in the metro at risk of being fired by the federal government. Last week, the City Council passed a resolution to expedite job applications from federal workers. The resolution said federal employees possess a “wealth of experience and specialized knowledge.”
The resolution’s sponsor, Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw, said helping fired federal workers is good for the city and the local economy.
“The long-term impact of having unemployed people will have a negative impact on our city,” she said at a recent committee hearing.
Parks-Shaw said 17% of the city’s 4,000 positions are currently unfilled.
As the federal workforce contracts, the city will have to step up and provide some of those services.
“Local government continues to march forward and pick up some of those responsibilities,” said Councilman Eric Bunch.
The city said it will add a box for federal workers to check on its standard job application, so they go directly to hiring managers.
Kansas City joins a growing group of cities and states trying to help fired federal workers — leaders in San Antonio, Hawaii and New York state are also targeting government workers for jobs.
Many local and state governments have turned to civicmatch.org, a website that matches former federal government workers with state and municipal jobs. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas recently pitched federal workers on the site on Facebook.
“We’d be honored if you considered staying in public service if you’ve experienced a recent, sudden separation,” he wrote.
The website listed about 20 jobs in Kansas and Missouri, ranging from a payroll technician in Johnson County, Kansas, to a deputy chief of staff for Lucas.
The city’s human resources department told the city council it is meeting weekly with the organization.
Kansas City will also participate in a job fair Saturday sponsored by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers at the IRS. And leaders in Kansas are also trying to find resources for workers.
Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids met last week with fired federal workers. "In Kansas, where federal jobs are a vital part of our economy, these cuts threaten not only public trust but public safety,” she said in a statement.
Her office has created a job resource guide to help federal employees find new work.
The number of fired federal workers is unclear
There is no definitive number of how many federal workers have been fired by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. Some — like workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration — were fired and then rehired.
Other agencies with lots of employees in greater Kansas City include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Environmental Protection Agency, all of which are facing steep job cuts.
The Mid-America Regional Council estimates that each federal job creates another job in the region. “From an impact standpoint,” Frank Lenk from MARC told the Missouri Independent, “those are powerful jobs.”
Adding to the confusion are lawsuits aimed at halting the purge. There is a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Maryland for a temporary restraining order that would halt the firings of probationary employees and reinstate those who were terminated.
With a 4.1% unemployment rate, federal workers may have a hard time finding new work. “It’s hard to think this isn’t going to stress test the labor market in the coming months,” Cory Stahle, an economist at the job search platform Indeed told the New York Times.
