Worries remain over Trump cuts as Virginia jobless rate rises, climate programs slashed

Virginia policy makers continue to worry about the impact of the Trump administration’s slashing of the federal workforce and spending.

President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce and cut federal spending have created serious uncertainty about Virginia’s economy and undercut the state’s ability to combat climate change. 

A House of Delegates emergency committee examining the impacts of federal workforce cuts recently met in Norfolk for presentations from local leaders in Hampton Roads.  

Since Trump began slashing the number of government workers, Virginia policy makers have been on high alert given how deeply intertwined the state’s economy is with the federal government. But the Trump administration has had to re-hire federal workers it laid off, making it hard to know how many have really been laid off. According to tracking by CNN, at least 128,709 federal workers nationwide have been laid off or targeted for layoffs.   

Job postings data from Indeed show that federal spending cuts are beginning to impact the labor market, particularly in the Washington, DC area, which includes Virginia. According to an Indeed research report, Trump’s federal workforce cuts have resulted in a massive surge in federal workers starting new job applications and an already cooling job market for research jobs has gotten worse. 

“The pullback in these (research and development) roles suggests that cuts to government spending are already impacting some employers and organizations outside the federal government that depend on federal contracts,” according to Indeed. 

Unemployment rising

There are some warning signs that have begun to flash for Virginia’s economy. 

Virginia’s unemployment rate rose to 3.4% in May – the highest it’s been since August 2021, but still less than the national average of 4.2%, Axios D.C. reported. The rise in May marks the fifth consecutive month Virginia’s unemployment rate has risen – the longest streak since 2008 when the economy crashed. 

The Democratic nominee for governor Abigail Spanberger said the rising unemployment rate reflects the impacts of “the Trump administration’s reckless attacks on Virginia’s economy.” 

“It’s unacceptable that my opponent, the Lieutenant Governor, is cheering on the White House’s chainsaw approach to cutting the federal workforce,” Spanberger said in a statement. 

Spanberger’s Republican opponent, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Climate funding cuts

Programs targeting climate change have already been a target of the Trump administration, and Virginia could see even more damage done to its efforts to fight the impacts of a warming climate. 

The Trump administration has been “laser-focused” on cutting programs related to combating the impacts of climate change, which has resulted in millions of dollars in canceled federal funding for long-standing climate projects in Virginia, according to Jay Ford, Virginia policy manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. 

Virginia’s entire approach to climate resilience is predicated on massive federal investments, so the Trump administration’s pull back on support for combating climate change puts Virginia in a “precarious position,” Ford told Dogwood in an interview. 

“Virginia may need to be prepared to take on some of these roles that the federal government was playing,” Ford said. “Because the worst thing we could do is punt for six years. That is a financial disaster for us, and it is a health and human life disaster for us.”

Virginia’s environmental programs rely on federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and United States Geological Survey. But significant workforce cuts at those agencies have imperiled Virginia’s water monitoring efforts, climate change research, flood preparedness, and technical assistance for farmers, Ford said. 

“These are all impacts we feel at this point, and we’ll need to work on ways to backfill,” Ford said.