Gen Z fell in love with government jobs. Elon Musk’s budget cuts might upend them.

The hottest trend in Washington, DC, might be updating your résumé. Elon Musk’s government efficiency commission has been tasked with cutting government spending, raising questions about the future of millions of jobs.

B-17 and Madison Hoff have a breakdown of the number of employees and salaries at different government departments.

The average compensation for most departments was over $100,000, with the Department of Education topping the list ($144,561). Veterans Affairs was the largest employer — 486,522 workers — and more than double the second-biggest department (Homeland Security’s 222,539 employees).

The specifics on how the Department of Government Efficiency will operate still aren’t clear, but Vivek Ramaswamy, who is co-leading DOGE with Musk, has said entire federal agencies could be cut.

That might sound drastic, but some of the biggest areas of government spending are a lot harder to touch.

Social Security ($1.46 trillion) and Medicare ($874 billion) are considered mandatory spending, meaning they don’t require congressional approval each year and would require a major legislative push to make cuts or other changes. Cuts made there could also kick off a firestorm from the general public.

Musk also isn’t a stranger to taking big swings that others doubt are possible. When he acquired Twitter and cut 80% of the staff, many predicted it was the end of the app. More than two years later it’s still running and the center of public discourse.

But eliminating entire departments comes with its own set of challenges, write B-17 and John L. Dorman. DOGE will likely operate as an advisory group, without the powers to enact changes itself, experts told B-17.

Government jobs’ potential reckoning is happening after the public sector got a ton of attention this year.

Fed up with the layoffs and volatility that plagued the job market in 2022 and 2023, government jobs suddenly became an attractive alternative.

Pay in the public sector largely lags behind private-sector jobs, but that’s somewhat offset by good benefits, retirement plans, and job stability. Younger workers, in particular, don’t seem to mind the tradeoff.

Now they’ll potentially face an environment they were looking to escape, where jobs aren’t guaranteed and things can change on a whim.

There could be a silver lining. In October, Musk said he’d consider severance packages as much as two years’ pay to help alleviate the transition.

“We just have too many people in the government sector, and they could be more productive elsewhere,” Musk said.