The slow economic shockwaves of government layoffs.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

Current and former workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development are being allowed

into U.S. AID headquarters in Washington, D.C. today for a second day for 15 minutes

to pack up their belongings. But the federal government's

layoffs are being felt across the country, not just in D.C. Marketplaces Nancy Marshall Genser talked to a USAID

contractor in Oklahoma about what's happening there. 47-year-old Patricia Gross has worked as an

independent government contractor, a gig worker, since 2018.

She, her husband, and three young sons live just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Nonprofits hired her to write applications for federal grants, mostly from USAID and the

Agriculture Department. Now the nonprofits are out of work, and so is gross. So the family is dependent on her

husband's salary. I think like right now we're okay, but I mean it's concerning last year. I did

really well and we bought a house last summer based on my income, you know, increasing our family

income. Gross says she made about $75,000 last year.

She has a side gig helping people write their resumes.

She only made about $1,000 doing that in 2024.

Now, former resume clients are back.

There are federal workers or contractors who are also out of work.

Gross says her heart breaks for them, but there's no time to waste.

The advice I've been giving my clients is that people are mourning now, and if you wait a month,

everybody is going to start really looking for a job, and there's not that many jobs out there.

Gross herself applied for a few jobs last weekend on LinkedIn, but she got messages

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