Thousands of President Obama appointees and hundreds of Hillary Clinton campaign staffers are struggling to look for employment after Democrats lost the White House in November.
Since Donald Trump won the presidential election, there have been far fewer employment opportunities for Democrats in the Washington, D.C. area, Politico reported over the weekend.
There is less demand for Democratic services now that 4,000 White House administration jobs are no longer available for the staff of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Staffing opportunities on Capitol Hill have also dwindled after Democratic Senate candidates like Russ Feingold and Katie McGinty lost in 2016.
"It feels like there are just thousands of us trying to find a job, and there are no jobs," Mira Patel, a longtime Clinton aide, told Politico.
Obama staffers have explored moving to the private sector but have found that the shock of Trump's win has lowered their chances.
An Obama administration official said that he was negotiating with two tech companies in November, but after the election, and "there was a pretty clear about-face." The official noted that another company was "far less euphemistic in saying we need Republicans, not Democrats."
The struggle of Democrats to find jobs in the private sector extends to trade associations, lobbying firms, and corporate government affairs offices, Politico noted.
Anastasia Kessler-Dellaccio, a 35 year-old woman who quit her job to run Foreign Policy Professionals for Hillary, has been "rattled" since the results of the election due to Trump's values.
"I think people, myself included, are trying to figure out, 'How do I recalibrate my dreams?'" Kessler-Dellaccio said of herself and fellow Democrats reeling from Clinton's loss.