WASHINGTON — The job market on the Hill can be chaotic and rough after any election, especially for the staffers on the losing side. But for Democratic staffers still looking for work nearly five months after Republicans won control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, prospects are bleak and show no signs of improving. They have plenty of company across broader Washington, as President Donald Trump attempts to decimate the executive branch workforce.

Current and former Democratic aides describe a job market still in turmoil, with offices taking their time to pick through a deluge of applications for every opening. While they expected a tough market, given the GOP electoral sweep, the degree of difficulty has caught many by surprise.

One job-seeker with years of experience on the Hill replete with promotions and accolades described a disheartening monthslong search.

“It’s going to sound cocky, but it’s true: I have a strong resume, I have strong credentials, I am good at what I do,” he said. “And I’ve applied to — geez — five, six dozen postings over the last three or four months and just have gotten dramatically fewer interviews than I have in the past … because the applicant pools are just so horribly competitive.”

The staffers Roll Call spoke to, who requested anonymity to frankly discuss their job and hiring prospects, said a Senate opening might normally see 100 to 200 applications and a House position 50 to 75, with those numbers being slightly higher during post-election churns.

Those numbers are up significantly this year, at least by their count. One senior staffer in a Senate freshman’s office estimated he saw “well into the hundreds” for mid-level positions, and nearing a thousand for the entry-level positions. Others said application figures were up between 50% and double what they’d usually expect.

“It is a buyer’s market,” said one hiring manager in a different freshman Democrat’s Senate office, adding he’s seen more applications this year than when he hired in 2017, the last time Trump replaced a Democrat in the White House.

This “embarrassment of riches” of highly qualified applicants, the senior staffer said, means his office has interviewed more than they expected. “It was shocking” how many good applicants they had to choose from, he said. “There were a lot of qualified people we wanted to talk to, which slowed down the hiring process, too,” he said.

That, in turn, feeds into the sense of desperation some job-seekers are feeling. Not only are they facing more rejection, but the offices they apply to and interview with are slower to respond, if at all, compounding the uncertainty.

In addition to the expected diaspora from Joe Biden’s administration, the senior staff said they saw a surprising number of non-political federal staffers applying for Hill positions, as the current administration attempts to slash jobs.

“I met with someone last week that was at USDA, who got DOGE’d, as they said,” said a chief of staff for a House freshman, referring to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Led by billionaire Elon Musk, DOGE’s moves to downsize the civil service and cancel contracts face dozens of lawsuits calling those actions unconstitutional, unlawful, arbitrary and capricious.

Amid DOGE’s chainsaw approach to the federal workforce and its potential aftershocks on the Hill, broader indicators suggest the nation’s economy is slowing: consumer confidence hit a 12-year low, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta predicts shrinking GDP, and inflation expectations are up. The economic uncertainty, which many economists attribute to the Trump administration’s rapid-fire tariffs against America’s largest trading partners, only compounds the anxiety felt by Hill job-seekers.

A recent report from job market website Indeed found applications from workers at federal agencies targeted by DOGE increased 50% in February. The report, which analyzed data from Indeed users and applications made through the website, found that 68% of federal workers looking for new work had bachelor’s degrees. The report also suggested that federal employees actively seeking new jobs increased in the DMV region, while the number of open job postings in the region, including private-sector openings, remains 2% below pre-pandemic levels.

The February jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a decline of 10,000 federal jobs across the U.S., and the March numbers are expected to be higher.

Many worry those losses will hit local economies hard in places that have a high concentration of government workers, with ripple effects for contractors and more. Continuing unemployment claims in D.C. have risen from 7,655 the week ending Jan. 18 to 11,147 as of March 8, a 45% increase since Trump took office.

Lane Lofton, who lost his chief of staff job after Rep. David Trone fell short in his Senate bid in Maryland, said he was “lucky” to find his new position as executive director at Future Forum, a Democratic caucus for younger members of Congress.

Before that, his attempts at landing as a chief in another office had fallen short, despite a lengthy Hill resume. “I was being kind of picky and choosy about what I was going for, and those didn’t work out,” he said. “I know probably four or five people who were House chiefs on Jan. 2 who are still looking.”

There was “a lot of urgency” early in the post-election churn, with aides who would have normally sought to find a promotion accepting lateral moves, said the chief who works for a House freshman. “That’s not typical on the Hill,” he said. “Usually, when people are looking for a new gig, it’s a promotion of some sort.”

The unemployed communications aide had similarly hoped to move up or find a member more aligned with him politically. But as his savings dwindle, he’s now applying to nearly any opening on the Hill and a few off it, too. “I’ve applied to a handful of retail things to try to hold me over,” he said.

If he doesn’t find something soon, he’ll have trouble making rent. His roommate offered to float him a month or two, but “that’s not a fair thing to put on anyone. So, I’m desperate.”

“It just is disheartening, because I want to be in this fight,” he said. “Especially right now.”

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