Prince George’s County saw a slight increase in federal workers during the first three months of 2025 while the majority of the counties surrounding Washington, D.C., reeled from cuts to their federal workforce, according to a Diamondback analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Prince George’s County’s federal workforce grew by nearly 0.4 percent between January and March, most recent data available show. Almost every other Maryland county in the Washington, D.C., region saw a drop during that period.

More than 110 federal workers were added in the county, where federal employees comprise more than nine percent of its workforce, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The small gain in federal employees is typical for the county during the first quarter of the year, Maryland Department of Labor spokesperson Dinah Winnick wrote in a statement to The Diamondback.

Through March, federal facilities in Prince George’s County were not yet targeted by cuts or layoffs to the same extent as departments based in other Maryland counties, such as Montgomery, the statement read.

Excluding the nation’s capital, Montgomery County has the most federal employees in the Washington, D.C., area. The county lost 801 federal employees, the largest county-wide drop in Maryland during the three-month period.

In the first quarter of the year, Prince George’s County experienced its only drop in federal employment between February and March.

More than 1,000 employees were laid off at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which included employees at its Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park in March.

[College Park officials brace for impact of federal facility closures]

The county also experienced federal layoffs in the summer as the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the shuttering of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center with more staffing cuts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Philip Joyce, a public policy professor at the University of Maryland, said facility closures in the area as well as around the country happened at the discretion of the executive branch without congressional approval.

Joyce said the slated closure of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and mass layoffs at NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate Prediction were, in his mind, “clearly illegal” and unprecedented.

Local policy experts and county officials expressed concern about the effect additional cuts could have on the county’s revenue and budget.

Every county bordering Washington, D.C., excluding Prince George’s County, saw its federal workforce decrease by at least one percent. Washington, D.C., itself saw a slight increase of about half a percent.

“Changes in federal employment have ripple effects throughout our region,” Winnick wrote in a statement. “For example, service industries, such as restaurants and hotels, are often affected by fluctuations in federal employment in Maryland.”

Thomas Luke Spreen, an associate public policy professor at this university, said Prince George’s County relies on income and property tax revenue collected from residents. If either shrinks, there will be “a spill over effect onto local revenue,” he said.

[Prince George’s County Council revises plan to help laid-off federal workers]

If more federal employees in the county lose their jobs, the county collects less income tax revenue. This is difficult to make up at the local level, where the county needs to raise as much revenue as it spends, Spreen said.

But Maryland’s personal income tax base is holding up well despite the “turmoil related to federal employees,” Spreen said.

District 1 Prince George’s County Council member Thomas Dernoga said while the overall layoffs have had a “huge personal level impact,” there will be consequences later for the finances of both local and state governments.

“This is a crisis,” Dernoga said. “The Trump administration is doing everything they can to harm people.”

The council member said he expects the income tax revenue drop to be the “number one thing” the county government will see in the future. Federal workers laid off will be able to get unemployment benefits and some income, but nothing comparable to what they received from their work, Dernoga said.

Dernoga said in October that the county has not seen the impacts of a lower tax revenue but is bracing for that possibility in the future, especially if the then-government shutdown led to mass firings.

At least 670,000 federal employees across the country were furloughed and about 730,000 worked without pay during the longest-ever government shutdown, which ended Nov. 12, according to the Associated Press.

During the shutdown, the county faced furloughs on top of the previous federal worker firings.

“It’s like the two hurricanes joining off the East Coast,” Dernoga said. “It’s a double whammy.”

According to Sharon Taylor, communications director for the Prince George’s County Executive, the county executive’s office has provided resources such as job training workshops, rental support and financial aid for federal workers who lost their jobs. Additional assistance was provided for federal employees furloughed during the government shutdown.

“I think people feel good and do feel good about recognizing that their government cares about what happens to them,” Taylor said. “In the meantime, we are where we are and we’re just going to try to help people as much as we can.”