{"id":42226,"date":"2025-05-13T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42226"},"modified":"2025-05-13T03:30:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:30:05","slug":"d-c-s-doge-recession-is-fast-approaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42226","title":{"rendered":"D.C.&#8217;s DOGE recession is fast approaching"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Signs of a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/05\/01\/elon-musk-doge-interview\"><u>DOGE<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;recession are flashing in D.C. \u2014 rising unemployment, less credit card spending and jitters about more federal cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong>&nbsp;A local &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/washington-dc\/2025\/03\/05\/federal-jobs-economy-recession-bowser-trump\"><u>mild recession<\/u><\/a>&#8221; is expected as the Trump administration downsizes the capital city&#8217;s big factory \u2014 the federal government,&nbsp;<a href=\"#DandR\"><u>employer<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;to 17% of the region&#8217;s workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>State of play:<\/strong>&nbsp;Even before most of the federal job cuts, the number of unemployed residents in D.C. increased 12.2% in February over last year,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ora-cfo.dc.gov\/publication\/economic-and-revenue-trend-reports-march-2025\"><u>city stats<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;Negative&#8221; is the city&#8217;s credit outlook, Moody&#8217;s Ratings\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cfo.dc.gov\/release\/cfo-glen-lee-issues-statement-moodys-downgrade-cites-strong-financial-management\"><u>declared last month<\/u><\/a>. The agency yanked D.C.&#8217;s perfect triple-A bond rating, making it potentially pricier to finance projects.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Spending at big retailers in the region dropped 2% in April, the Washington Post\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wapo.st\/3SzA3rG\"><u>reported<\/u><\/a>\u00a0after crunching credit card data from Earnest Analytics. Everyday locals are skipping pricey gym memberships and dining out less, business owners tell the Post.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">D.C. home listings are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/washington-dc\/2025\/05\/07\/home-inventory-spike-doge-layoffs\"><u>soaring<\/u><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Zoom out:<\/strong>&nbsp;There&#8217;s pain in the suburbs, including in Maryland&#8217;s Prince George&#8217;s County, which has a prosperous Black middle class. The unemployment rate rose to 3.5% this year, from 2.2% in March 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Trump canceled plans to build a new FBI headquarters there \u2014 and the Washington Commanders and Six Flags America are leaving, the Post noted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">In tech and defense-rich Fairfax County, Virginia, the jobless rate rose to 3.2% in March, from 2.2% last December.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Then:<\/strong>&nbsp;The federal government insulated D.C. from the worst of the Great Recession, then powered an economic boom. D.C.&#8217;s population grew about 14.6% between 2010 to 2020, according to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/library\/stories\/state-by-state\/district-of-columbia.html\"><u>Census Bureau<\/u><\/a>. Cranes dotted the skyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Now:<\/strong>\u00a0D.C.&#8217;s economy is projected to contract by 1.9% next fiscal year, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ora-cfo.dc.gov\/publication\/022825-february-2025-revenue-estimates-fy-2025-2029\"><u>D.C. Chief Financial Officer<\/u><\/a>\u00a0says. Construction has slowed, with residential building permits\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ora-cfo.dc.gov\/publication\/economic-and-revenue-trend-reports-march-2025\"><u>dropping<\/u><\/a>\u00a033% as of February.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>The vibes are bad<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 79% of area residents think the Trump administration&#8217;s cuts to federal programs and jobs will hurt the local economy, according to a new&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/tablet\/2025\/05\/09\/april-22-may-4-2025-washington-post-schar-school-dc-area-poll\/\"><u>poll<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;by the Post and George Mason University&#8217;s Schar School of Policy and Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What we&#8217;re watching:<\/strong>&nbsp;Mayor Muriel Bowser&#8217;s 2026 budget plan is the next economic indicator. Deep cuts to services are expected, at a time when the cit<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/washington-dc\/2025\/05\/13\/dc-recession-federal-cuts-layoffs\">axios<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Signs of a&nbsp;DOGE&nbsp;recession are flashing in D.C. \u2014 rising unemployment, less credit card spending and jitters about more federal cuts. Why it matters:&nbsp;A local &#8220;mild recession&#8221; is expected as the Trump administration downsizes the capital city&#8217;s big factory \u2014 the federal government,&nbsp;employer&nbsp;to 17% of the region&#8217;s workforce. State of play:&nbsp;Even before most of the federal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":42227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21524,29482,31218,1908,2244],"class_list":["post-42226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-credit-cards","tag-d-c-2","tag-doge","tag-recession","tag-unemployment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42228,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42226\/revisions\/42228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}