What will happen when the thousands of sacked US federal workers have no wages this month?

[Serpentstooth]

Thousands dismissed. Can someone explain why this is a good thing? There aren't jobs for them to fill. Maybe it'll be fire and re-hire? Surely they can't have prevented their military from being paid? That would be a very bad idea.

@telephonelady yes those are good points and not what I was originally thinking about - which was an efficiency drive and people needing to find a different job - as I do think the american civil service is bloated (the growth rates over recent years are huge). But yes indiscriminate sacking of people that are undertaking important work is a whole different matter. Not sure much can be done - Musk has always operated like this - reduce first, then see what breaks and rehire. It's wau quicker than the standard approach and possibly fair enough for a tech company but not an entire economy.

I know! I had to double check the date to make sure April Fools hadn't sneakily crept up on me.

This page is a scary read, throughly has to read with fact we don't know who is behind it in mind. Re getting rid of inefficient staff and process, many of those let go for apparently not being competent had gotten excellent reports at their recent evaluations

It's not to do with competence, it's about money and power.q

I have just made a reservation for camping in June

This would be over time and addressed mainly through 'wastage'.

Firing thousands of people at once is a whole different ballgame and not comparable.

Apparently property prices in DC have fallen by 20% within the last few weeks/couple of months.

@ThroughThickAndThin01 can I ask which forum you are referring to?

TIA

That isn't entirely correct.

Dependant on where you look, Redfin has median sale value in the DC market 8.6% down compared to Jan 24 and Zillow has it 2.0% down since Jan 24.
Worth noting, list to sale value of houses are still roughly 98.1% overall. So houses are still selling pretty close to list price.

It is still a stable market and some of this could be down to the type of property being listed, starter home etc.

Some of the real estate websites state that there is increased inventory. More houses for sale mean it's more likely the houses will sell for under list.

It's not about that either.

This.

And from Ask a Manager (US-based employment advice website) today:

"For people who don’t know what’s going on: Probationary employees in the federal government are being fired and are having it documented as being for “performance reasons” even when they’ve had glowing performance reviews and even when their managers oppose the firing. A slew of letters doing this to people went out on Saturday night (of all times)."

This may well affect their future job prospects, if they have to put on future job applications the reasons for their "dismissal".

Awful.

You can buy a house for the price of a car in places like Arkansas. Of course you're going to need a car as well. Probably two cars....' out in the great alone'.

Trump has abolished farm management grants that were brought in by the post Covid infrastructure bill. Presumably because Biden introduced them? But who can fathom the labyrinthine logic of that man. A lot of people in the South and Midwest are going to feel betrayed. Then they will turn on Fox News and realise those pesky migrants and welfare queens are to blame.

You do know many of them are getting 8 months pay and benefits.

That's not much for people who a) loved their careers and b) thought they had a secure career with the civil service.

Furthermore what about the ripple effects on other citizens and on the economy?

I have a cousin in the midwest and she is jobhunting outside of the US now.

I always think this when the Daily Mail, Telegraph etc rile people up and say the public sector is far too bloated, we need to cut it to the bone blah blah. All well and good. but how's making swathes of people unemployed going to help anything?!

They almost certainly are not.

Arent many of those in first round of losses people in the probation stage?

Not sure am allowed to say, starts with R, two syllables.