Nearly 2,800 HHS jobs axed in Maryland

The Washington Business Journal goes local on HHS RIFs, counting 2,755 Maryland positions to be terminated by 30 May 2025, representing more than a quarter of the 10,000 layoffs underway nationwide. WARN notices filed with the Maryland Department of Labor show the heaviest losses in Montgomery County, including 925 jobs in Rockville, 650 in Silver Spring and 525 at NIH’s Bethesda campus. Smaller cuts hit CMS offices in Woodlawn and Baltimore City.

The reductions arrive on top of 10,000 voluntary departures since 2021 and are part of President Donald Trump’s drive—led by Elon Musk’s DOGE—to shrink the federal workforce through job cuts, lease cancellations and contract terminations.

State leaders are bracing for economic fallout. Maryland’s Board of Public Works this week extended a $3.9 million call‑center contract to handle an expected surge in unemployment claims. “We must be prepared to support Marylanders during this crisis,” Labor Secretary Portia Wu told the board.

Unions call the move reckless. The American Federation of Government Employees warned that gutting public‑health staff “puts every American at risk,” citing lost expertise at FDA, CDC and NIH. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged Friday that about 20 percent of the pink slips were issued in error and will be reversed, though he offered no timetable.