California Tries to Lure Federal Workers in Year of DOGE Cuts

The state of California has received more than 2,000 job applications from federal workers since January as it actively recruits them to bolster its workforce.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) launched a campaign in early 2025 to lure civil servants to state agencies as President Donald Trump began to slash US government agencies. The state employs about 247,000 people, excluding those in California’s university system.

The push has netted some high-profile recruits, with Newsom announcing Dec. 15 the state would hire Susan Monarez, who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention until she was fired in August in a dispute with the Trump administration about vaccine policy. Monarez will lead a new public health initiative.

“We saw that she was moving on and we immediately reached out,” Newsom said during a press conference.

The state is also looking for federal workers to fill existing roles. California’s Franchise Tax Board, the agency overseeing personal and corporate taxes, hired 15 IRS agents since January for its audit division.

The recruitment push, coming amid a relentlessly rocky year for federal workers, has given state officials a chance to bring federal expertise into their agencies. The campaign has challenges given California’s estimated $18 billion budget deficit, and a fragmented state bureaucracy that makes such hiring outcomes difficult to track.

Newsom, a leading critic of the White House and potential candidate for president in 2028, also sees an opportunity to create a backstop against the Trump administration by supporting civil servants, who he argues are necessary to help maintain democratic institutions and provide crucial services.

“The state of California wants former federal employees to know there is a place for them in the Golden State,” Monica Erickson, director of the California Department of Human Resources, said. Newsom appointed Erickson to the position in October.

Hiring Push

California is home to about 150,000 federal workers, excluding the US Postal Service, judicial branch, and some federal law enforcement, like the FBI.

The state is one of several that launched campaigns to try poaching federal employees as the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency undertook sweeping cuts earlier this year.

“We’ve seen a handful really take that pledge seriously. California is one of those,” Caitlin Lewis, executive director of the nonprofit group Work for America, said. The group helps governments attract and hire workers.

The California Department of Human Resources rolled out recruiting materials tailored to federal workers in March. An April webinar the agency hosted for US government employees attracted more than 400 people, more than twice as many attendees as its previous virtual event.

California also embraced Work for America’s program Civicmatch, a free website for job seekers looking to work in state or local government.

Thirty-two state governments are on the platform, which also has 12,000 job seekers, Lewis said. Fourteen California agencies and offices are recruiting on the platform.

Tracking how many federal workers are hired is more difficult. The state included an option on job applications beginning in March that allowed candidates to identify themselves as having been affected by federal cuts.

The state has received more than 2,000 applications from candidates who selected that option, but it doesn’t have data on how many of those applicants were later hired by state government departments, according to the California Department of Human Resources.

The lack of data is one of several issues facing state and local governments looking to attract workers from the federal government.

Local governments often lack the staff with the expertise needed to recruit job candidates, and state agencies don’t market as widely as private sector competitors, Lewis said.

Government hiring policies can give recruiters less flexibility in negotiating with candidates and can slow down the hiring process, she added.

“Just the time involved in actually moving someone through the hire process can lead governments to lose people,” Lewis said.

Some states, such as North Carolina, have overhauled hiring processes, simplifying eligibility requirements and increasing the ability for candidates to substitute experience for education. Maryland also launched several waves of rapid hiring and reported recruiting nearly 500 federal workers since February.

California’s government has taken steps to simplify hiring, such as eliminating longstanding college credit requirements and reducing the number of different job classifications in state agencies.

An incorrect AI summary previously at the top of this story was removed.