Elizabeth Glidden knows it could be worse.

Although she recently lost her job as a technical program officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development, she quickly found new work — a temporary position at the World Bank on the advice of a friend.

Her job comes with a generous hourly rate but no benefits, including parental leave if she and her husband decide to expand their family. She’s also paying more of each paycheck toward Social Security and Medicare tax because she’s classified as self-employed.

“I’m so grateful to be there,” Glidden, 35, says. “Most people I know [from USAID] don’t have jobs yet. But financially, it’s just not where I need it to be.”

Glidden isn’t alone. The desire for temporary work — and the number of temporary workers — is growing. Though every election creates some churn in the labor market, leaders at several temporary staffing agencies say they’re seeing an unprecedented number of job candidates and an uptick in requests for workers, exacerbated by a shrinking federal workforce and organizations freezing open positions as donations slide and the number of contracts decreases. Unemployment in D.C. jumped by 12.2 percent in February compared with a year ago, and new unemployment claims are up 167 percent. The region’s suburbs are seeing similar trends — unemployment in Maryland’s Prince George’s County climbed to 3.3 percent in April, and in Fairfax County, Virginia, unemployment rose to 3.2 percent.

“Companies continue to hire for critical roles,” says Trey Barnette, a regional vice president with the staffing organization Robert Half. In many cases, however, Barnette says, organizations have taken a “wait-and-see approach” on nearly all other positions.

Temp work and gig work are not the same

Temporary jobs — jobs with a schedule set by the company but paid by the recruiting agencies that advertised them — tend to disappear during recessionary periods as businesses shrink — or hesitate, as happened during the pandemic in 2020 and during the recession in 2008. Over 2.5 million people work in temporary positions nationwide as of April 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, down roughly 21 percent since the last peak, in March 2022.

Conversely, the amount of gig work increases during down times. Gig jobs, such as driving for Uber or helping someone hang up a flat screen television through the Taskrabbit app, are defined as project work performed by freelancers or independent contractors. The online platform economy, or OPE, is the main marketplace for gig work. During the coronavirus pandemic, 3.5 million new workers earned money through the OPE, according to a study by Andrew Garin, an assistant economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

“When you see temp [gig] work rise, it’s when the economy is not doing at all well and places are looking to slash overhead expenses,” said Lindsey Cameron, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who studies the gig economy. “People are needing to make more money and are looking for ways to get more of these part-time, contingent jobs.”

In a rocky economy, one word stands out: Temporary

Chris Jones runs a company called PoliTemps in D.C.

Former federal workers met with lawmakers on February 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. to talk about the actions of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Jobs in the DMV region fluctuate with the political scene

Chris Jones, founder of PoliTemps, has been filling roles at politically oriented organizations for two decades. His clients include nonprofits, lobbying firms and advocacy organizations like Emily’s List, the Union of Concerned Scientists and People for the American Way. After every election, his clients reach out for temporary workers as special interest groups and government relations offices often need to staff up to shift their focus or adjust their strategy.

That’s been especially true since President Donald Trump won reelection, Jones says. Many organizations have scrambled to fill roles with temporary workers as they figure out how their strategy — and budgets — will be affected by decisions at the federal level. Many lack the necessary human resources support.

“Employers are feeling overwhelmed by [the number of] job seekers and résumés right now,” Jones says. “Many contractors are in a wait-and-see mode to find out what’s happening. Temp has a role to play here with the interim needs.”

Jones has also had more job applications from people looking for temporary roles. After an election, “all these people are downsized, and they want to come back to Washington to fight the good fight,” he says.

That’s what drew Madison Ede, 23, to PoliTemps. The recent college graduate thought she wanted a career in business after finishing up her degree at American University last May.

A political science class changed her mind. Ede decided to pursue a career in reproductive rights, but she had few connections in the field. She turned down three job offers and instead applied to 150 campaign, government and nonprofit jobs.

PoliTemps placed her at a “dream job” with a local nonprofit. Ede had hoped her position would become permanent, but the organization stopped hiring in the run-up to the election. After six months, Ede’s contract ran out.

Temping allowed Ede to “go after passion and see if you really want to pursue it while you’re young and trying to figure everything out,” she says. Ede worked as a placement and operations manager for Jones before returning to the nonprofit, accepting a role she hopes will become full time. “You can find out what’s out there andwhat makes you happy,” Ede says of her experience.

Javier Lopez is a recruiter and founder of the Gov Geeks, which typically helps candidates land federal jobs.

Javier Lopez launched the career-coaching firm Gov Geeks to help federal workers find new opportunities within the government. Now, he’s hearing from clients who are leaving the federal workforce and want opportunities in the private sector, academia and nonprofits. Though most of his clients are looking for full-time opportunities, he said, it can be hard to make the transition quickly, especially because there are so many people seeking jobs now.

“For folks who can’t make the transition well or quickly, it’s, ‘How do I fill my résumé; how do I get enough experience,” he said. For them, temporary work is attractive. “I’ve seen interest in freelance work, in starting an LLC and even in volunteering.”

Julie Moos, a vice president at Help Unlimited Temps, says she’s seen a jump in the number of mid-career professionals trying to figure out their next move. Some people, she says, are just looking for a paycheck; others are looking to learn about new fields as they consider a pivot.

“They realize they have to look outside” what they’re used to, she said, “to different types of companies because a lot do have transferrable skills.”

Moos said she hasn’t seen a significant drop in the number of organizations looking for temporary workers, but if the economy continues to decline or federal government cuts get steeper, she worries that could change. “In past years, when the government cuts back, contractors pick up,” she said. “But the way things are going now with shutting down, I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

Experts say federal workers have the skills they need to succeed in the private sector but often need help translating their experience. A nonprofit called FedsForward, founded by two former civil servants, offers career coaching and résumé reviews to help former federal workers weed out acronyms, a favorite of federal job descriptions, and complicated language.

A handful of local schools are also offering skill-building opportunities. At Northern Virginia Community College, recently laid off federal workers and contractors can take a range of free courses and training programs. About 250 people have signed up so far, spokesperson Kathy Parkinson says. Project management, information technology and entrepreneurship courses are the most popular. Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies is offering a 30 percent discount to former federal workers interested in pursuing professional certificates in areas such as cybersecurity strategy, data science and artificial intelligence governance and compliance.

Julie Moos, vice president at Help Unlimited Temps.

Tracy Van Duston, a general and human resources manager at NRI Staffing Resources, has helped companies bring on temporary and permanent workers in and around D.C. for 25 years. She focuses on administrative roles, like paralegals or executive assistants, along with health-care positions like nurses and medical assistants.

When people apply for opportunities with NRI, Van Duston conducts interviews and performs reference checks. She likes to get to know her candidates so she can make good matches, often pairing people with opportunities that take advantage of their expertise.

Van Duston said there’s always been a core group of Washington residents open to temporary work. “I see everything,” she says. “I see college students for the summer and recent college grads saying, ‘Hey I haven’t gotten a job yet.’ I see people trying to reenter the workforce and other folks that have retired.”

That description fits Claire Rusk, who began to weigh her options after she lost her job last year. Should she seek out a new position? Or was it time, at 64, to retire?

Neither choice felt quite right to Rusk, who once worked in the White House and spent much of her career as an event planner and headhunter. So she called an old friend at a temporary staffing agency in D.C. and asked for some gigs.

“I don’t want to work full time anymore,” she says. “But I wanted to do something.”

Since joining Van Duston’s firm, Rusk has staffed the front desk at a luxury apartment building and managed holiday parties. Once, the event planner in charge ran so late that Rusk had to manage the final event setup herself, earning her a callback for the following year. On another occasion, Rusk helped an organization negotiate a refund when attendees from another conference crashed a lunch gathering.

“When I did this work full time, I worked 16, 18 hours in the days before a big conference,” Rusk says. “This way, I can breeze in and still have the sense of accomplishment.”

Rusk said she likes getting out of the house and meeting new people. She also appreciates the flexibility. Some months, she’ll take on several day jobs, while other months, she’ll keep her schedule free. Before a family cruise last year, she took “a bunch of assignments to cover the bar bill.”

Some of Washington’s newest temporary workers are, like Rusk, finding the upsides of contract work. One former lawyer for a federal agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about her employment situation, accepted the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer in February.

After 15 years specializing in government law, she doubts she’ll be able to find another full-time legal job, especially with the glut of legal workers seeking employment. Instead, she plans to litigate Freedom of Information Act cases on contingency. In the meantime, she accepted a contract role writing scripts about politics and the law for an online content creator.

She found the job through a friend. She has enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with a new kind of work, especially because she has always loved writing. “It’s a very cool job,” she says.

But, she added, it’s hard to find a role with “the kind of benefits or job security that government workers have. Or had.”