NY wants to hire federal workers fired by DOGE, Hochul says

New York State wants to hire federal workers in the wake of sweeping layoffs carried out by the new federal Department of Government Efficiency.

The office, spearheaded by billionaire businessman and Trump aide Elon Musk, has fired thousands of federal employees since Jan. 20 in the name of reform and slashing government bureaucracy. Most of the 2.4 million members of the civilian federal workforce live outside the D.C. region, causing rippling impacts across the country — including on Long Island. 

“The federal government might say, ‘You’re fired,’ but here in New York, we say, ‘You’re hired,’ ” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a news release. “Whatever your skills, we value public service. … Come join our New York State family.”

There has been an ongoing effort for the past several months to hire more state workers, the governor's office said in an email, adding that the state does not have a firm number for how many employees it plans to hire but there are open positions across various state agencies and authorities.

Nearly 61,000, or 3.25%, of federal civilian employees lived in New York as of 2017, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. At the time, the state fell into the top 10 residences for federal employees.

It’s unclear how those numbers may have changed, especially in the wake of federal layoffs.

DOGE cut the federal workforce across agencies by an estimated 200,000 workers in its first month of operation, an effort that has led to dozens of lawsuits and several judicial temporary restraining orders.

Trump, in a Feb. 11 executive order, set a hire-to-fire ratio of 1:4 but did not set a numerical goal.

It's not the first major effort to rein in the government — President Bill Clinton’s Reinventing Government cut 426,000 employees and saved about $136 billion during his eight years in office, Newsday previously reported. But unlike past initiatives, Trump and Musk have so far moved forward without involving Congress.

Several employees at the Holtsville branch of the IRS said staff reductions were underway last week as the Trump administration moved to terminate more than 6,000 agency employees nationwide.

One employee described Department of Homeland Security officers patrolling the hallways while IRS workers awaited official termination via email at their desks, Newsday reported. Scores were escorted out of the building.

“It was very, like, morbid,” said Jennafer Martens, 25, of Centereach said last week. The mother of two said she had been planning on a career in government in part to support her children, including a 5-week-old baby. 

The state Department of Labor and the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers, could not say how many had lost their jobs on Long Island.

NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald in a Monday statement called the layoffs “arbitrary and unlawful,” and “a recipe for economic disaster.”

“In the middle of a tax filing season, when taxpayers expect prompt customer service and smooth processing of their tax returns, the administration has chosen to decimate the whole operation by sending dedicated civil servants to the unemployment lines,” she said.

Greenwald added: “Much of the IRS workforce is outside of the Washington, D.C. area, which means these layoffs are disrupting their local economies and hurting middle-income families in every state.” 

Martin Cantor, a Melville accountant and a former Suffolk County economic development commissioner, said the Long Island economy should be able to absorb IRS employees who lost their jobs, especially in the finance and commercial real estate industries. 

"They're our friends and neighbors who are losing their jobs, so that's where the trauma will be felt in the short term," he said. 

Long Islanders filing taxes likely won't be impacted by the local layoffs, especially if they're filing online, he said, although there may be fewer IRS audits in the region. 

There are ongoing efforts to launch an "enhanced website for federal workers who are looking to work" with the state, the governor's office said, adding: "The federal government’s loss is New York State’s gain when it comes to driving money into the state’s economy."

The state has encouraged federal workers to check out job openings at ny.gov/wewantyou.

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers personal finance and affordability for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.