• Jennifer Gittelman faces prolonged unemployment after a mass layoff in healthcare administration.
• Despite extensive job applications, Gittelman struggles with lack of responses and feedback.
• Gittelman has one regret which she believes may be impacting her ability to get a job

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jennifer Gittelman, 44, from Philadelphia. It's been edited for length and clarity.

After a 20-year career in healthcare administration, I was part of a mass layoff in April. It sucked, but I remember thinking it would be OK. I figured if I started applying to jobs on July 1, there was no way I'd still be unemployed by the time my unemployment benefits ran out in October. I was wrong.

Here we are in December, and I've hardly done anything since July but apply for jobs all day, every day. As the weeks go by, it's been getting scarier and scarier.

My unemployment benefits ran out, and I'm pinching pennies to hold onto my savings. If I didn't have my 78-year-old mom to take care of, I think I'd just give up. But I can't and won't.

I've been in healthcare administration for pretty much my entire career

I worked at a Medicare DME supply company for 15 years before resigning in 2019 to relocate from Florida to Philadelphia. I take care of my mom, and I wanted to move her closer to our extended family.

I quickly landed a new role in medical staffing as a traveler support specialist. Six months later, the pandemic hit, and by November 2021, my entire branch was dissolved, and I was laid off. After an intense two months of job hunting, which I thought was forever at the time, I landed a job at a medical staffing company as a compliance and credentialing specialist.

I worked steadily there until April, when I was part of a mass layoff. Luckily, I was given a severance package and unemployment benefits through October, which helped cushion the blow.

I decided to rest for the next two months before applying for jobs in July. I haven't received any offers, and it's been a scary, disheartening time.

I've applied to countless jobs

Nearly all of my time, other than cleaning, grocery shopping, and volunteering for a nonprofit, is spent applying for jobs. I've searched through what feels like every job board possible: Indeed, GlassDoor, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, and more obscure ones like PowerMyCareer, Monster, and PSG.

I've tried all the free job search memberships and even some paid ones. I've applied to more jobs than I can count and nothing has seemed to work.

It's frustrating because I feel like my résumé is pretty decent. In 20 years, I've only had three jobs, all in the same industry, and I have references from each place. I even have a letter of recommendation from a director at my last job.

I feel like employers have been unprofessional

For most applications, I'm not even getting a response from a human, let alone an opportunity for an interview. Typically, it's just an automated response saying the company is moving forward with someone else. There's no feedback, just rejection. It's insane.

I've had some interviews and a few that I thought went really well — we spoke for an hour, the employer asked lots of questions, we discussed pay, and they even told me I was moving on to the next round.

Then, I'd write them an hour later, thanking them for the interview, and I'd never hear back. The one time I got a written rejection from a person, I asked if it would be possible to provide some feedback as to why I was not chosen. I didn't get a response.

I don't get excited about interviews anymore because who knows what could happen.

I have one regret that might be making it harder to land a job

I didn't finish college, and that's the one thing I regret. I've thought about going back a lot over the years but I couldn't justify accumulating all those student loans when I was already making a solid salary.

Now I feel like maybe I should've gone back to school because, in today's competitive job market, it helps a lot to have a degree.

I feel like I'm in this gray area of being overqualified for regular customer service positions, but because I don't have a degree, I'm underqualified for higher positions, even though I'm technically qualified to do them.

If I get a job offer, I'm taking it

I'm getting more scared as the weeks go by. Before my unemployment benefits ran out, I'd go out and buy a coffee from time to time. Now I won't even grab something at a WaWa. I want to save every penny I can.

At this point, I'm not in a position to turn down any job. It took me forever to save the money I have, and at 44, I don't want to spend my entire savings being unemployed.

I always try to make Christmas really nice for my mom because, at her age, who knows when it's going to be her last. This year I told her I was sorry because I couldn't do that, and she was like "Are you crazy? Do you think I care about presents at this age?" I know she doesn't care, but I can't help but feel bad.

Sometimes, I think, "What if I didn't have my mom to take care of?" Maybe I would just give up, lay in bed, and become homeless. Having someone who depends on me makes it so I can't give up.

This time has been disheartening, but I won't give up.

If you've struggled to find a job since a layoff and would like to share your story, please email Tess Martinelli at [email protected].

• Donald Trump's new DOGE commission, tasked with cutting spending, has floated laying off federal workers.
• Government employees said they were preparing by networking and freshening their résumés.
• Amid the concerns with DOGE, some employees said there could be benefits to its aims.

Federal employees are reporting mixed feelings about President-elect Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency and its ideas to cut costs by laying off workers and enforcing return-to-office mandates.

Some are worried, some are optimistic, and most are considering their other career options, 10 people who spoke with Business Insider said. Most asked for anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.

"We're just workers. We work in a nonpartisan way," one Department of Health and Human Services employee said, adding that they were nervous, especially because they recently bought a home. "It kind of feels like we're being villainized."

On the other hand, Jesus Soriano, who's been a program director at the National Science Foundation for 13 years and is president of the agency's American Federation of Government Employees union, said that while employees were scared, there were "reasons for optimism with DOGE."

Trump said his picks to lead the unofficial commission, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, "are technologists."

"They have — both of them in their own fields — translated science into products that have tremendous impact on the public and that contribute to America being a preeminent powerhouse," he said.

Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and other various companies, and Ramaswamy started a tech-focused pharmaceutical company called Roivant Sciences.

In the wake of the DOGE Commission, many government workers said they were updating their résumés, networking more, or assessing new career options — regardless of their political beliefs.

"Everyone is putting their ducks in a row," a Department of Housing and Urban Development administrative worker of 10 years who worked under Trump's first term told BI. "You can't be lackadaisical, regardless that the government may take forever to do something. You better be one step ahead at all times."

While it's still unclear how exactly DOGE would cut government spending, Musk and Ramaswamy have pledged to eliminate some government agencies, which could mean laying off thousands of federal workers, and compel others who have been working from home to return to the office.

The federal government is the largest employer in the US, paying more than 2 million civilian workers. The Departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Defense are among the top employers, with workers earning average salaries near $100,000. Just under half of all workers across 24 agencies were telework-eligible as of May 2024, according to an Office of Management and Budget report.

"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home," Musk and Ramaswamy wrote about their cost-cutting plans in a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

Brian Hughes, a Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, told BI the administration "will have a place for people serving in government who are committed to defending the rights of the American people, putting America first, and ensuring the best use of working men and women's tax dollars." He didn't offer any details on cuts.

Soriano, the National Science Foundation program director, said government workers were "still scared." He said five colleagues he'd talked to were actively seeking new jobs or opting to retire.

Increased efficiency is a welcomed idea. In-office mandates, not so much.

Trimming government spending and improving efficiency is an idea often discussed on both sides of the political spectrum.

President Ronald Reagan pursued a similar goal with the Grace Commission, a team of 160 private-sector executives who proposed more than 2,000 cost-cutting measures. President Bill Clinton also attempted to reduce federal spending and improve government efficiency with the National Performance Review, led by federal employees.

The efforts had mixed results. Many proposals from the Grace Commission that relied on congressional acts didn't end up happening, while executive orders were successful in reducing the head count of federal workers. Clinton's panel similarly succeeded in cutting 300,000 federal workers but managed to get only a quarter of proposals that required legislative action through Congress.

An operations manager at the US Postal Service who has worked in the department for 27 years told BI every company had inefficiencies, and "that's what we all strive to decrease."

He has concerns, however, about people stepping in to make suggestions for the Postal Service without having "tribal knowledge" of the department.

"If you're just going to be appointed to this type of commission or committee with no knowledge of what exactly the Postal Service does, then that could potentially be a problem," he said.

DOGE's intent to eliminate remote work is also a concern for some workers. The HUD employee, who'd been working remotely, said return-to-office enforcement would "absolutely" be enough to cause them to resign. They're preparing for layoffs under DOGE by looking at other employment opportunities, and they said their colleagues at HUD were taking similar steps.

Joyce Howell, an attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency — who's been at the agency for more than 31 years and serves as executive vice president of its AFGE union — said the incoming administration had stoked concern about layoffs at the EPA and fears that its mission could be compromised.

"We have town halls once a month, and we've actually broken our Zoom account in terms of the number of people attending," she said of union meetings.

Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in the Journal op-ed that the commission would target more than $500 billion in what they called unauthorized government spending. They said federal employees who were laid off would be offered early retirement. At a town hall in October, Musk said he would consider giving laid-off workers up to two years' severance.

An employee at the Food and Drug Administration said it wasn't that easy: "We're here to support a mission. We have families to feed, and it's not as easy as just quitting our jobs," the FDA employee said.

"We're just normal, everyday people — we're being portrayed as inefficient, lazy people," they added. "It feels like they're coming for us just for their own agenda, not realizing that we're the backbone of the federal government."

Another federal-government lifer said many workers like them — people who'd been there for years — were nervous they might be the first to go. The career tenure of a median federal government worker was 6.5 years in 2024, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, well above the median 3.5 years private workers have spent in their roles.

One senior official at the Commerce Department said they anticipated a civil-servant brain drain. "The scientists are the most concerned," the official said, with those in climate, meteorology, and environmental science particularly worried.

The Department of Education has meanwhile been singled out as an entire agency that could be on the chopping block.

Sheria Smith, the president of the AFGE union at the Department of Education and a civil rights attorney at the agency, said department elimination was "on the lower end of concerns" because it would take time and need to go through Congress.

Rather, being turned into a "Schedule F" workforce, which allows government agencies to reclassify workers and remove certain protections that make them easier to fire, could mean employees who aren't "aligned with the executive wholly" could be laid off based on performance.

And given the widespread denigration of the Education Department and return-to-office threats, people are most likely looking for other work. "I'd be surprised if they weren't," Smith said.

Are you a federal worker willing to share your story? Contact these reporters at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].