Job listings at federal contractors fall sharply
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Help is…not wanted at the nation's largest federal contractors. Job postings by these employers plummeted this year, per new data from Indeed out this morning.
Why it matters: Elon Musk may be gone from the White House, but DOGE-driven spending cuts are now flowing through the private sector.
Zoom in: Indeed looked at job postings from the top 25 largest federal contractors, measured by government dollars obligated in 2024.
- Indeed didn't break down numbers by individual firms, so it's not possible to pinpoint which have pulled back the most or least.
- Contractors on the list come from a range of industries and include Lockheed Martin, UnitedHealth, Booz Allen and Honeywell.
By the numbers: Job listings from federal contractors are down 15% since January, while postings from all other employers fell just 0.5%.
- Since February 2020, listings from contractors are down a stunning 44%, while all other listings are up 14% from their pre-pandemic position.
- "There's been a pretty clear nose dive" with federal contractors you don't see with everyone else, says Cory Stahle, an economist with the Indeed Hiring Lab.
Between the lines: There's a flood of newly unemployed federal workers looking for jobs now.
- In the past these folks would have found a home in the contracting world. That's a harder path to go down at the moment.
The big picture: Even with overall unemployment low, many companies are pulling back on hiring.
- For some, tariff uncertainty makes it harder to plan for the future. Others are still paring back from the post-pandemic era, Stahle says.
The bottom line: Businesses that rely on federal dollars are pulling back on hiring, putting more stress on an already faltering job market.
