The group helping displaced federal workers land gigs in state, local government is expanding

Since its launch last November after the 2024 presidential election as a simple Google form to help match outgoing federal workers with positions in state and local governments, the talent program Civic Match announced Wednesday it’s expanding its team and offerings for public sector servants looking for new roles.

Civic Match, a program run by the workforce nonprofit Work for America, says its new offerings include a revamped job candidate portal and free executive coaching for all Civic Match candidates.

The announcement follows massive growth on its job platform. Since January, more than 9,000 jobseekers have signed up for the program, and more than 800 state and local government hiring managers have partnered to list their job vacancies. Hires have been made in state governments such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and cities like Nashville. 

Work for America also announced it’s hired Josh Gee, who created the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Digital Service team in New York City, to serve as Civic Match’s vice president. Gee helped lead the MTA’s Digital Service through efforts such as the launch of real-time station information, and launching award-winning tools like the MTA’s live subway map, according to a news release.

Caitlin Lewis, Work for America’s executive director, said the program has seen a 20-fold surge in demand since January. In part, the surge stems from instability in the federal workforce following budget cuts and firings by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency unit.

Lewis said the surge can also be attributed to a previously untapped interest in state and local government work. Lewis said that in addition to outgoing or recently laid off federal workers, contractors and campaign staff, Civic Match routinely receives inquiries from recent college graduates or folks working in the tech sector.

“The growth has been insane since Jan. 20, and it not only has created a more ongoing need for this program to serve in the same capacity that it’s currently serving — which is helping outgoing federal workers land jobs in state and local government — but we’ve also just really tapped into a desire to be able to access state and local roles that we have realized was really being underserved,” Lewis said. “So I think we’ve both been able to or had to scale up to meet the unbelievable need of this exact moment, but I’ve realized a much broader, ongoing need that we can continue to serve for the program.”

Since January, the number of candidates using the platform actively has increased from 1,200 to over 9,000, and the 800-plus state and local government hiring managers using the platform is a rise from just 220 in January. Candidates have expressed interest in roles listed on the platform more than 11,000 times, up from just 700 in January, and more than 1,000 candidates have been placed on shortlists by hiring managers, up from 238 in January.

Lewis said considering the average time to hire in state and local governments can take up to 130 days, the updates to Civic Match’s candidate portal — a new resource page, a more customizable profile and the ability to save jobs of interest — are crucial to delivering more successful job matches quickly.

In January, Lewis shared that one Civic Match candidate had made it to final interviews to oversee the implementation of Nashville, Tennessee, Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s Choose How You Move transportation improvement program. Lewis said that candidate, Sabrina Sussman, who’d served as a senior adviser to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and chief of staff to former Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg, was hired by the mayor’s administration last month.

Lewis also said the program is also expanding its partnerships to reach more job seekers. Along with the organization’s partnership with the nonprofit National Association of State Procurement Officials, which was announced last month, Civic Match is now offering free executive coaching for all candidates via a partnership with Grounded Idealist. The group also just finalized a partnership with the nonpartisan workforce organization Feds Forward to offer workshops on translating federal skills and experience to the state or local level.

“The reason why we brought on Josh [Gee], especially with his expertise in civic technology and moving tech forward projects through government, is over the next six months, we absolutely need to execute on what Civic Match has promised to the job seekers on our platform,” Lewis said. “So, we are laser-focused on making the program as it stands today, as functional as possible and extremely high capacity in terms of actually receiving job seeker applications, matching them with roles that they’re a fit for, and then helping them through the hiring process so that they land in these jobs in state and local government.”