Is this the end for Washington as a jobs hub?

Like thousands of other global development professionals, Samantha Hicks spent several years building a life, home, and career around Washington, D.C., which has long been a bustling jobs hub for the U.S. development sector. But after spending eight years working her way up to a leadership recruiting position at Abt Global, her team was furloughed less than two weeks after the newly sworn-in president, Donald J. Trump, signed an executive order freezing U.S. foreign aid. “At that point, I didn't know if I was going to go back. I didn't know if anybody on the team was going back, but I knew that there was no need for recruitment,” Hicks told Devex in an interview. With uncertain job security and a mortgage to pay, Hicks began “applying for anything and everything in the area,” submitting roughly 100 applications. This yielded just one interview. “I frankly stopped looking because I just needed a mental break from all of it,” she said. Nine months after the aid freeze was first enacted and the effective dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development that followed, the job market for development professionals in the Washington metropolitan area — D.C., Maryland, and Virginia — remains extremely challenging. Fueled by 300,000 federal job cuts, the DMV region has seen unemployment rise at a significantly higher pace than the rest of the U.S., and D.C.'s unemployment rate, currently around 6%, has been the highest in the nation for several months. New development job postings on Devex based in the DMV region are also down drastically, according to a recent data analysis. Just over 1,300 D.C.-based roles were posted in the first nine months of the year, down nearly 50% compared to 2024. Maryland postings are down about 80%, while Virginia postings are down roughly 60%. While the numbers paint a dismal picture of a hiring landscape, they fail to capture the devastating personal toll on the broader D.C. development workforce, according to several sector professionals who spoke to Devex about the unprecedented challenges they’ve faced and whether the city’s development ecosystem will ever recover. From navigating grief and a loss of identity, to survivor’s guilt for those whose jobs have been so far spared, the emotional impacts have been “huge,” Dan Perez, director for North America at SRI Executive, said. “Most of the people in my direct circles have been impacted directly by losing jobs, or are worried about doing so,” he said. Yet amid the uncertainty, a story of resilience is also emerging, as professionals move past the grief and begin to adapt, reinvent, and search for new purpose. ‘I've not just lost my job, I've lost my industry’ While many expected changes to how foreign aid and development would operate under the new administration, the scale and speed of the disruption caught the entire sector off guard, those who spoke with Devex said. “I don't think there's ever been anything like this in the larger development sector, or even the larger D.C. public sector,” said Perez, who has spent his entire professional career of nearly 18 years in Washington. Laura Wigglesworth, who began the year as a senior talent acquisition consultant at PATH and had worked 25 years in the sector, was among the nearly 20,500 people estimated to have lost jobs as a result of the USAID cuts. But the loss cut far deeper than a terminated contract. “I'm realizing that I've not just lost my job, I've lost my industry,” she said. Wigglesworth spent the following weeks and months applying to jobs and reaching out to her community, including organizing local career summits to help connect and support others in a similar predicament. But none of her efforts led to a new role in the oversaturated market. “Your friends and family tell you [that] what you really need to do is network. And I say to them, I had 30,000 LinkedIn connections, and 29,000 of them are out of work. So now what?” she said. As job loss counts have piled up, professionals described the knock-on effects they’ve seen on the city and surrounding neighborhoods. Perez, who travels often for work, spoke of a “quieter” D.C. upon returning from a recent trip, with fewer tourists, more for-sale signs, and a “general gloominess.” The number of homes for sale in the DMV region is up by 64% since last June, according to Brookings. ‘It was my time to move on’ For a sector known for its resilient and selfless workforce, pivoting to roles outside of the traditional sector hasn’t been a popular option. But an unforgiving job market is leaving many with little choice. “A pivot seems essential, at least in the short term,” Regina Rabenhorst, an organizational development consultant and leadership coach, said. With most of her previous consulting work gone, “I have had to broaden my horizon and seek opportunities in entirely different fields,” she added. After being furloughed, Hicks and a few of her Abt Global colleagues were called back to work in late March, but her day-to-day work had shifted from hiring new employees to processing layoffs. With fragile job security and a mounting mental toll, her return was short-lived. “I knew it was my time to move on — that safety and job security that I always felt like I had there was just stripped away at that point,” said Hicks, who eventually found a new, remote job in the private sector. As more time passes since the initial upheaval, more professionals appear ready to explore their own next career steps, including remote opportunities and jobs outside the DMV region. “I do see people that are willing to move out of D.C., and they're getting jobs,” Stephanie Mansueto, a social impact careers coach and former development recruiter, said. Beyond the private sector, roles across local government and domestic nonprofits are also being explored, while others are moving into consulting work, taking sabbaticals, or retiring. Transitions have been easier for some than others, depending on their sector. Those working in areas such as climate and energy transition may have more options, but pivoting from global to domestic health, for instance, is “a longer pathway,” she said. Wigglesworth is “trying to do the entrepreneurial thing,” she said. After doing pro-bono work for an artificial intelligence job-seeking platform, she landed a contract role with Callings.ai, an HR technology startup that uses AI to assist job seekers throughout the recruitment process. “The undercurrent of all of this is once you grieve, once you move through your emotions, you might actually find something really incredible on the other side, whether that's of your own making or with an organization that you align with,” said Radhika Bhatt, a climate and social impact career coach who’s worked with several professionals affected by the aid cuts. ‘Why not build something new?’ As the workforce moves on, D.C.’s development identity becomes more fragmented, and most agreed that the city’s relationship with the traditional aid sector will never be the same. “I do believe we’re looking at a permanent shift,” said Rabenhorst. “Other funding streams will eventually fill some of the gaps, and there will still be careers in this space — they’ll just look different.” Some hope that political winds will blow back in the sector’s favor, with future administrations restoring some of what was lost. But this would take time that most professionals do not have, and any sense of job security that once existed may never return. “I just don't know how many people would even come back,” Mansueto said of a traumatized workforce less likely to trust in the longevity of future federal government work. Others see potential for something bigger and better to eventually emerge for D.C. and its purpose-driven workforce, maybe even one less dependent on which political party is in power. Bhatt suggested that the region could still play a key role in impact-focused work. “What if D.C. moves away from being a government hub and becomes the next social-entrepreneurship hub of the world?” she asked. “With all the incredible talent here, why not build something new? Maybe this is how we build the future we want to see.”