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A former federal worker who has lost his job at the Department of Education walks out of the building with boxes of belongings in Washington, D.C. on March 28, 2025. (Photo by Jess Daninhirsch/Capital News Service)
I’m a Marylander, a former federal employee and a father raising my family here. Watching federal troops roll into Washington, D.C., on the theory that force can stand in for safety, I keep returning to a simpler truth Maryland has proven: Durable public safety rests on economic security. Caring about well-being starts with protecting work, wages and the least-advantaged Marylanders when Washington pulls back on jobs.
In June, Maryland lost an estimated 3,500 federal jobs — the largest one-month drop in nearly 30 years. Since January, the state has shed 12,700 federal positions — the most of any state. This is not to imply that laid-off public servants will commit offenses; it does mean income shocks ripple through rents, small-business cash flow, and youth opportunity — the very neighborhood conditions that drive welfare concerns.
The consequences of Washington’s job policy are arriving here first and hardest.
The exposure to such losses is structural, as roughly 229,000 Marylanders draw a federal paycheck, and federal activity pours well over $100 billion into our economy each year. When that machine slows or shifts, Main Streets from Suitland to Bethesda feel it acutely.
To his credit, Gov. Wes Moore moved to create a one-stop portal, fast-tracking state hiring and launching fairs and pipelines so displaced federal workers can land on their feet quickly. That instinct was right, though a temporary hiring freeze later paused the effort. With jobs already slipping and more losses possible, Annapolis should build a permanent jobs shock-absorber for Maryland’s labor market. An automatic stabilizer that snaps on whether the trigger is federal layoffs, AI-driven displacement, or the next sectoral shake-out.
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Picture the Friday when a paycheck stops: the car note comes due, a shift gets cut at the corner shop, a teenager skips summer work to watch siblings. None of that makes headlines, but it’s where safety is won or lost.
A jobs stabilizer isn’t a campaign slogan; it’s a short bridge between one employer and the next, so families don’t fall and main streets don’t hollow. In Maryland, we know how to build bridges. Let’s build this one — quietly, quickly and on purpose so a job loss becomes a landing, not a spiral.
Consider three ways Maryland can meet this moment for displaced federal workers and the communities that depend on their paychecks:
Guarantee 60- to 90-day reemployment for displaced feds and contractors. Stand up a permanent “Feds to Maryland” program that (a) preclears skills into state and local classifications, (b) funds short, paid “bridge” upskilling sprints, and (c) offers time-limited wage insurance when workers take a lower-paid role to stay employed. This complements the administration’s earlier state-hiring push by turning a one-off response into lasting, economic development infrastructure.
Make our workforce innovation-ready. Use Maryland’s AI Subcabinet to identify occupations most exposed to automation (admin, compliance, customer support) and bolt them into registered apprenticeships and short-cycle credentials under the RAISE framework. Implement a public AI risk map by county and agency to ensure training dollars align with actual exposure. The goal isn’t to fear AI or technological innovation; it’s to ensure workers can move up the value chain and leverage it to their advantage before disruption lands.
Stabilize neighborhoods when incomes dip. Establish a Prompt Pay Guarantee and a Family Bridge. Pay small and minority-owned contractors on time, every time; help families cover a month or two of basics during a layoff; and work with community banks to keep borrowing costs down by placing a slice of state cash with community banks in the hardest-hit corridors so they can lend more cheaply. That’s economic justice in practice.
Again, federal layoffs are not a direct, one-way road to violent crimes. I’m arguing that income shocks, not ideology, turn ordinary stresses into hard choices. The evidence is clearest for property crime when unemployment rises; violence is more complex.
Baltimore’s progress shows that prevention plus opportunity tracks with safety. Which is why, if Washington retrenches while projecting force, Maryland should double down on the basics: Keep paychecks coming and cash moving so strain doesn’t become desperation.
We can’t steer Washington, but we can steady Maryland. In a state that has chosen “work, wages, and wealth” as its north star, the task now is simple and serious: Create a safety net that employs workers and deploys funds to families so shocks become transitions, not crises. Measure success by this: the least-advantaged households stay housed, small firms keep hours posted, and workers step into the next job before the last one is gone.
Let others stage spectacle; Maryland can mobilize for stability.
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