2025-02-08
9 分钟NPR.
This is the indicator from Planet Money.
I'm Darian Woods.
I'm Waylon Wong.
And it is jobs Friday.
The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the economy added 143,000 jobs in January.
The unemployment rate nudged down a tiny bit from December to 4% since President Trump took office.
There is one group of workers whose job security has been in the spotlight, and that is the federal workforce.
This is a huge and varied group that includes diplomats, nurses, doctors, custodians, even zoologists.
As of January, there were about 3 million people employed by the federal government.
The Trump administration wants this number to be a lot smaller.
And Elon Musk is leading an unprecedented charge to dramatically shrink the federal workforce,
sometimes through brute force actions like basically dismantling entire agencies.
The government also extended an offer for employees to quit their jobs.
Per the terms of the agreement, they will be able to collect their pay and benefits through September without working.
But is this offer even legal?
Just yesterday, a federal judge paused the offer until at least Monday of next week.
Today on the show, an employment lawyer walks us through the government's deal,
which has plunged the federal workforce into confusion and uncertainty.
And we talked to some of those government employees about how they've been weighing this critical decision to stay