Do you know someone affected by Trump’s job cuts? Many Americans say they do, poll finds
Four in ten Americans have been impacted or know someone who has been impacted by cuts to the federal government made by President Donald Trump’s administration so far, according to new polling.
In the latest YouGov/Economist poll, 8% of respondents said “recent cuts in government agencies and programs” have affected them personally.
An additional 11% said they’ve affected a family member, and 21% said they’ve affected someone else they know.
Meanwhile, a slim majority of respondents, 51%, said recent government cuts have not impacted them or someone in their life. And 17% said they were not sure.
Conducted March 1-4 with 1,638 U.S. adults, the poll found there was a large partisan divide on this question.
The majority of Democrats, 61%, said they or someone they know has been affected by Trump’s cuts, while 41% of independents and 20% of Republicans said the same.
This divide was even larger when the results were broken down by how respondents voted in 2024. Among those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris, 69% said they were impacted or know someone who has been impacted. And among Trump voters, 19% said the same.
The poll — which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points — comes as the Trump administration has slashed jobs and funding to numerous federal agencies in a reform effort spearheaded by the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk.
In February alone, 62,242 federal jobs were cut across 17 agencies, marking a staggering increase of 41,311% from the previous year, according to a March 6 report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm.
Among the departments affected are the Defense Department, the Education Department, the Energy Department and the Department of Health and Human Services with more agencies that have been forewarned of coming cuts, according to the Associated Press.
This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Do you know someone affected by Trump’s job cuts? Many Americans say they do, poll finds."