This undated photo shows Mitch Flanigan petting two now-retired sled dogs at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Flanagan in December 2024 accepted a full-time ranger position working with the sled dog team, but was a probationary worker fired by the U.S. government Feb. 14, 2025. (Mitch Flanigan via AP)
Axed from jobs not easily found outside government, thousands of federal workers caught in President Trump’s cost-cutting efforts now face a difficult search for work.
“If you’re doing, say, vegetation sampling and prescribed fire as your main work, there aren’t many jobs,” says Eric Anderson, 48, of Chicago, who was fired Feb. 14 from his job as a biological science technician at Indiana Dunes National Park.
All the years of work Anderson put in — the master’s degree, the urban forestry classes, the wildfire deployments — seemed to disappear in a single email dismissing him.
He’s hoping there’s a chance he’s called back, but if he isn’t, he’s not sure what he’ll do next. He was so consumed with his firing that he broke a molar from grinding his teeth. But he knows he’s caught in something larger than himself, as the new administration unfurls its chaotic cost-cutting agenda.
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