The layoffs and firings that are happening across government agencies have spread into the contractor workforce that supports them, with multiple companies filing notifications in Virginia and Maryland of workforce reductions.
Companies with over 100 employees are required to file notifications when they conduct a mass layoff.
A total of 13 GovCon companies have issued WARN notices in Virginia and Maryland, which adds up to 2,425 people losing their jobs.
One of the largest groups of layoffs was announced by Mitre, a not-for-profit operator of federally funded research and development centers, which Wednesday reported that it plans to lay off 442 people.
In an interview with WT, Mitre’s CEO Mark Peters said some of those layoffs involve consulting work the nonprofit had drifted into over the years.
Peters, who became CEO in September, said the company was already shifting its focus to its core work of operating federally-funded research-and-development centers and doing what he called “hard engineering.”
The series of contract cancellations and other moves from the the Department of Government Efficiency accelerated Mitre’s shift, Peters said.
“If we are looking like consultants or a kind of job shop, that’s not Mitre’s role,” he said.
While acknowledging the pain of the layoffs, Peters said the company is focused on the pivot to the new Trump administration and its new priorities.
Not all the layoffs are directly tied to cancelled contracts, but involve work Mitre sees going away or being reduced. The company is trying to reposition itself for the future, Peters said.
“We assumed a certain pipeline of work coming into the year and the shift in priorities has changed that,” he said.
Other companies reporting layoffs include Leidos, Peraton and ICF.
Peraton is laying off 123 people in Maryland that were working on the company’s Environmental Test & Integration III contract with NASA. The $359.4 million contract supports the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and is due to be up for recompete this year.
Officials at Peraton declined to comment.
Leidos has filed two WARN notices, one in Maryland for 20 people and one in Virginia for 29. The notices didn’t name specific contracts or customers.
“We’re actively engaged with all of our customers as they seek to implement a dramatically more efficient and effective federal government that costs taxpayers less money,” a Leidos spokesman said.
ICF filed two notices in Maryland, one for 14 people and a second for 41. The notices were filed in mid-March. Officials at ICF did not respond to a request for comment.
The WARN notices also illustrate how the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development has devastated its contractors, including three Top 100 companies. DAI Global (listed as Development Alternatives Inc. on the Top 100), Chemonics and ABT Global.
DAI reported the layoffs of 506 people and ABT Global laid off 241. Chemonics announced 500 layoffs via the WARN page for Washington, D.C.
Small businesses are not required to issue WARN notices, but they continue to bear the brunt of contract cancellations and the economic impact of unpaid invoices.
Some of the unpaid invoices date back to work that was delivered in October and November, according to the Professional Services Council.
“They have no more funds to draw from, and until the government pays them their invoices, they could not, in fact, stay in business,” PSC CEO David Berteau. “The government still owes them.”
According to the WARN notice logs for Virginia and Maryland, the following companies have announced layoffs:
- ABT Global – 241
- American Institutes of Research – 183
- Boeing – 68
- DAI Global – 506
- Equus Workforce Solutions – 117
- GetInsured – 35
- ICF – 55
- International Foundation for Electoral Systems – 48
- Leidos – 49
- Management Science for Health – 182
- Mitre – 442
- Peraton – 123
- Systems Science and Applications Inc. – 148
Another company not on the list told us they had a contract cancellation that impacted 100 employees, but they are being shifted to other work.
Large contractors and other companies with significant commercial revenue can shift employees, but that is not an option for small businesses.
One procurement official at GSA who was not authorized to speak on the record told us that “Deloitte has been hit by far the hardest” in contract reviews overseen by the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service.
Deloitte has had more than 100 federal contracts cut during recent weeks with a total value exceeding $300 million, per the official. Deloitte, unlike some government contractors, can avoid some layoffs in the short term by moving personnel to other projects across the firm including the commercial businesses.
A Deloitte spokesman told us this via a statement: “Overall demand for Deloitte’s services remains strong. We are taking modest personnel actions based on moderating growth in certain areas, our government clients’ evolving needs, and low levels of voluntary attrition.”
Booz Allen Hamilton has had around 60 contracts cut during the same time span, according to the GSA official.
A company spokeswoman referred us to a Wall Street Journal interview with CEO Horacio Rozanski, who told the publication “Time will tell” when asked about layoffs.
When asked about layoffs, he said, “Time will tell.”
Rozanski also told the Journal that Booz Allen may be able to shift people to technology-oriented work.
The impacts to consulting firms like Deloitte and Booz Allen follow a Trump administration directive through GSA to review consulting contracts with some of the largest consultancies.
Through a March executive order, the Trump administration intends to centralize procurement for large swaths of the federal government within GSA. That could potentially quadruple the size of GSA’s procurement responsibilities to $400 billion.
Amid widespread reductions in force across government and internally at GSA, the agency appears to be among the only federal agencies currently hiring at the moment. Four new job opportunities for contract specialists were posted Thursday.
Frank Konkel contributed to this article.
