Why Local Government is a Natural Next Step for Laid-off Tech and Federal Workers
Since 2022, more than 700,000 tech workers have been laid off across the United States. According to Layoffs.fyi, which has tracked workforce reductions in the sector since the start of the pandemic, the numbers by year are stark: 165,269 in 2022, 264,320 in 2023, 152,922 in 2024, and 124,201 in 2025. In 2026, more than 34,000 have already been added to that count in just the first two months of this year. Those numbers include Block, who cut 40% off their staff in the last week of February.
At the same time, the federal government has undergone its own dramatic workforce contraction. Layoffs.fyi's federal tracker reports that more than 182,000 federal employees have been separated from their positions, with 71,981 attributed directly to DOGE-related cuts. Roles across agencies, including IT, data, HR, program management, communications, and policy, have been eliminated or left vacant.
Two very different waves, yet one common outcome: tens of thousands of experienced, skilled professionals are looking for what comes next.
For many, the instinct is to look horizontally, the same type of role at a slightly different organization. But there is a more compelling option that many people overlook: local and county government. Not because it's a fallback, but because it is genuinely where the skills honed in tech and federal agencies are most needed, most valued, and most likely to produce visible, lasting results.
The Skills You Have Are Exactly What Local Government Needs
City and county governments are not looking for career bureaucrats. They are trying to hire people who know how to build software systems, manage data, communicate clearly, run projects, and make decisions under pressure. In the overall government hierarchy, they look more like a startup, where a small group of people can make an outsized and direct impact.
A software engineer who built internal tools at a SaaS company will find the same challenges waiting at a city IT department: aging infrastructure, underfunded modernization projects, and teams trying to deliver services to residents with limited resources. A federal data analyst who spent years building reporting systems at an agency has skills that most city governments have never been able to hire for. A program manager from a federal agency who coordinated across departments and managed compliance requirements is, quite literally, the profile of what cities hire Management Analysts and Capital Project Coordinators to do.
One of the issues is that these jobs are available, but not easy to spot. Many government job titles are written in language designed for insiders, not career changers. One of the reasons GovSkills exists is specifically to close that gap, translating job descriptions into plain language so you can see the match clearly.
Some examples of how roles translate: Software Engineer or DevOps Engineer becomes IT Applications Developer or IT Infrastructure Specialist. Data Analyst or Data Scientist becomes Performance Analyst or Business Intelligence Analyst. Product Manager becomes Management and Program Analyst. UX Designer becomes Digital Services Designer. Cybersecurity Analyst becomes Information Security Analyst. Technical Project Manager becomes IT Project Manager or Capital Program Coordinator. Communications or Content Manager becomes Public Information Officer. HR Technology or People Operations becomes a Human Resources Specialist.
For Federal Workers Specifically: Local Government Is a Closer Match Than It Looks
If you came from a federal agency, local government is not a step down or a reinvention. It is a lateral move into a more direct, more visible form of the same work.
Federal program managers already know how to navigate bureaucratic processes, manage stakeholders with competing interests, write compliance documentation, and deliver results inside a complex institutional environment. Those skills are directly transferable. The difference at the city or county level is that the feedback loop is shorter. When a county health department improves how it routes referrals to mental health services, residents notice within weeks. When a city's IT team rolls out a new permitting platform, local business owners feel it immediately. The scale is smaller, but the connection between your work and its impact on real people is much closer.
Federal HR specialists, recruiters, and workforce analysts are particularly well-positioned. Local governments are in the middle of a sustained effort to modernize their hiring practices. According to the MissionSquare Research Institute's State and Local Workforce Survey, an annual study conducted with PSHRA and the National Association of State Personnel Executives, 51% of state and local governments reported they frequently had to reopen recruitments due to insufficient qualified candidates, and 36% reported an increase in time to hire. They need people who already understand how to run a structured, compliant hiring process while also thinking creatively about where to find candidates.
If you held a policy, analyst, or program role at a federal agency, you also bring something that most local government candidates lack: experience with federal funding mechanisms. Cities and counties receive billions in federal grants annually through programs like CDBG, transportation formula funds, and the remaining Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocations. People who know how federal programs work, how compliance reporting is structured, and how to communicate with federal partners are genuinely rare at the local level and in high demand.
Local government is where federal experience becomes irreplaceable. Cities and counties deal with federal agencies constantly, on grants, on compliance, on policy implementation. If you spent years inside a federal agency understanding how that machinery works, you bring context and experience into a local government role that’s hard to match.
Stability Is Not a Consolation Prize
It is fair to say that one reason people overlook local government is that stability sounds boring compared to the growth narrative of tech. But the past three years have reframed that entirely. When companies that were considered untouchable, like Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, have conducted layoffs in the tens of thousands, it became clear that no tech job is structurally secure in the way that government employment tends to be.
Local government offers civil service protections that make arbitrary termination uncommon. Many roles include defined pension plans, which have largely disappeared from the private sector. Healthcare and retirement benefits are typically more comprehensive than equivalent private sector roles at similar salary levels. And for people with federal student loan debt, working for a city or county government qualifies for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which forgives the remaining balance on Direct Loans after 120 qualifying monthly payments, a benefit worth tens of thousands of dollars for many borrowers. Note that PSLF rules are in flux: a new Department of Education rule takes effect July 1, 2026, so anyone relying on PSLF as part of their planning should verify their employer's current eligibility at studentaid.gov before making decisions based on it.
The salary gap between tech and local government is real, and it is worth acknowledging directly. At senior levels especially, total cash compensation in tech has typically exceeded what cities and counties can offer. But the full picture, including pension, benefits, loan forgiveness, predictable hours, and genuine job security, closes that gap more than most people expect. Whether it closes it enough depends entirely on your situation and your role.
The Work Is Meaningful in a Way That Is Hard to Replicate
This is not a pitch about civic duty. It is an observation about what tends to matter to people once the initial shock of a layoff wears off.
People who have spent years in tech or in federal agencies, particularly those who did so because they believed in the mission, can experience the same fulfillment after moving to local government. Perhaps even more so because you get to experience the real impact in your local community. When a city's data team improves how 311 service requests are routed, residents get faster responses to flooding calls and broken streetlights. When a county deploys a new case management system for social services, families in crisis get help more quickly. When a communications team makes public health messaging clearer, the information actually reaches the people who need it.
The feedback loop in government is slower than in tech. Procurement cycles are longer. Bureaucratic processes exist for accountability reasons that are worth respecting, even when they are frustrating. But the connection between your day-to-day work and outcomes in your community is more direct than most private sector jobs, and more visible than most federal roles.
For people who came from federal agencies with strong missions, like public health, environmental protection, housing, transportation, local government is often the place where that same mission gets implemented on the ground. The federal agency sets the policy. The city or county actually runs the program, builds the infrastructure, and delivers the service. If you want to see the mission in action, local is where it happens.
What to Expect Going In
Local government hiring is slower than what most tech workers are used to. According to OPM's time-to-hire data, the federal government averaged 101 days from vacancy to hire in fiscal year 2024. Local government timelines vary, but NeoGOV puts the average across the entire public sector at 119 days. For most applicants the best recommendation is to apply early, read instructions carefully, and expect a structured process.
Technology stacks at most local agencies are likely older than what you've worked with. If you find modernization problems energizing, that is actually an advantage. There is no shortage of legacy systems that need people who understand how to migrate, upgrade, or replace them thoughtfully. If you need a current stack to stay motivated, that is worth knowing about yourself.
The pace of decision-making is different. Projects that would move in weeks in a tech startup can take months in a government procurement cycle. This is not a sign of dysfunction. It reflects real constraints around public accountability, budget rules, and political oversight that exist for legitimate reasons. People who arrive with patience and a willingness to understand the constraints tend to do well. People who arrive expecting to move fast and break things tend not to.
And if you came from the federal government, one more thing: local government culture tends to be less formal than agency culture. Decision-making is often flatter, relationships with leadership are closer, and the distance between your work and its visible outcome is much shorter. Many people who make the transition describe it as the version of government work they always wanted.
A layoff, whether from a tech company or a federal agency, is disorienting. But it is also an opening. Local governments need people who know how to build systems, manage data, lead projects, and deliver results. It offers stability, purpose, and work that lands in the community you live in. The skills you have are not mismatched with the government. The language is. GovSkills translates.
Where to Start
You can’t apply to a job if you don’t know if it’s what you actually want to do – or if you have the right qualifications. So while you can look directly at your local city and county's HR portals or USAJobs.gov for federal openings, the easiest path may be to let us find the right roles for you. Upload your resume at GovSkills.io and we’ll match your experience to relevant jobs in government. It’s free, and you can be browsing relevant government jobs in no time.
About GovSkills
GovSkills is the trusted translator between government and critical talent. We translate government job descriptions into plain language, surface them where professionals already are, and help city and county governments attract and hire the talent they need. Visit govskills.io to explore opportunities across all levels of government.