After contractor cuts, Voice of America staffers brace for further layoffs
Voice of America employees are bracing for further reductions in their workforce, not long after the Trump administration announced plans to terminate more than 500 contractors, according to several staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about it.
Cuts, which may be made as soon as this week, are expected to target all or most of the 800 remaining staffers at the government-funded news organization, which started in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda abroad. These employees work full time and are more difficult to fire than the contractors, whose last day is May 30. Politico first reported the news on Wednesday.
Senior VOA officials said that they were certain that further cuts were on the way but that the timing remained uncertain.
Most VOA staffers have been on paid administrative leave since President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 14 aimed at dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and which funds nonprofit media networks such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
The layoffs at VOA are part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to reduce the size and scope of the U.S. government. Numerous agencies have rolled out widespread reductions in force, some of which have been challenged in federal court.
Last week, a federal judge ordered the Education Department to reinstate nearly 1,400 fired workers. 'A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all,' U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun in Massachusetts wrote in an order granting a preliminary injunction.
Further, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in Northern California granted a preliminary injunction on May 22 extending a sweeping freeze on mass layoffs and reorganizations at 22 federal agencies, though USAGM isn't currently included.
VOA is already suing the Trump administration over the March executive order, saying that the president does not have authority to unilaterally dismantle the news organization, which was created by Congress. After U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued an injunction on April 22, which would have sent VOA staffers back to work, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which included two Trump appointees, stayed most of the injunction on May 3, keeping staffers on leave.
Kari Lake, senior adviser to USAGM, has promised to keep VOA at a 'statutory minimum' level of staffing and has brought back about 30 out of 1,300 staffers to do so. Lake has been detailed to the State Department to oversee the dismantling of USAGM, which oversees VOA. Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, but she previously told The Washington Post that more cuts were coming to USAGM.
'In accordance with President Trump's executive order dated March 14, we are in the process of rightsizing the agency and reducing the federal bureaucracy to meet administration priorities,' she wrote in an email on May 15. 'We will continue to scale back the bloat at USAGM and make an archaic dinosaur into something worthy of being funded by hardworking Americans. Buckle up. There's more to come.'
Jessica Jerreat, VOA's press freedom editor and a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the news — and how it was conveyed to staff — was disappointing. 'It's frustrating seeing the dismantling of an 83-year-old broadcaster in this way,' she told The Post. 'The uncertainty and way details are communicated make the situation worse. Plus we have our vulnerable colleagues who are already terminated and risk losing visa status by end of June.' J-1 visa holders have 30 days after termination to leave the United States, sparking fears that they may return to home countries hostile to critical journalists.
David Kligerman, who retired in January as general counsel and chief legal officer at USAGM, said the expected reduction in force would constitute 'a violation of the Impoundment Control Act and an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress's power of the purse.'
He added: 'To the extent that VOA prevails on at least some aspect of that claim, as many believe they will, it is hard to see how such a reduction in force — which would completely remove any and all of the staff who could carry out VOA's mission — is ultimately lawful.'
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That suppressed interest rates. So, it was. So now, it has been written. Suddenly, after a spate of negative reports had taken stocks down from their early morning and mid-morning highs, bond traders started buying U.S. Treasuries. On Wednesday, the U.S. 10-Year note, our nation's benchmark debt security, went out paying just 4.36%, down 11 basis points for the day. The 2-Year Note yielded just 3.88% (-8 bps) by day's end. The prospect for lower interest rates going forward allowed stocks to breathe and hold their levels on a day that they might otherwise have suffered a bout of profit taking. Just a day after investors had seen the S&P 500 technically confirm last Thursday's bullish change of trend. Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Report for May could still turn markets on their ear, Or not. The "big, beautiful bill" could pass. Or not. Talks between Pres. Trump and China's Pres. Xi could go well. Or not. Heads on a swivel, gang. Two sources of water. Clean socks. Full battle rattle. What impacted the markets on Wednesday? What's about to impact our marketplace? Let's go... Uh oh. On Wednesday morning, the ADP Report on private sector hiring for May showed just 37,000 jobs created during the month. This was the fewest jobs shown as having been created by this report for any single month in more than two years. This shows a deceleration from April's creation of 60,000 private sector jobs and badly missed the consensus view for 110,000 jobs created. This does not necessarily mean that Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics print will be weak, but it could. Anything this ugly on Friday will not pass unnoticed by investors. The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index hit the tape at 49.9 (50 is the line in these surveys between expansion and contraction), just a few days after the ISM Manufacturing Index had crossed the tape at 48.5. The real worry for May is the component labeled "New Orders," which is the single most important item in any business survey. For the month New Orders printed at 46.4 for Services and 47.6 for Manufacturing. That's nasty. Inventories and Backlogged Orders both also showed decay. Didn't anything show expansion? Oh, you bet your tail something did. Inflation did. Prices printed at a red hot 68.7 for the services economy and a white hot 69.4 for the manufacturing economy. Does that mean that we'll see reacceleration of consumer level inflation for May? I would think this is likely. We'll almost certainly see that producer level inflation has come back to life. The Federal Reserve released their Beige Book on Wednesday afternoon. The Beige Book, for the new kids, is a central bank publication containing anecdotal economic information from across the Fed's 12 regional districts, released eight times a year ahead of policy decisions. The Fed will make its next decision on monetary policy on June 18. On overall economic activity: "Reports across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts indicate that economic activity has declined slightly since the previous report. Half of the Districts reported slight to moderate declines in activity, three Districts reported no change, and three Districts reported slight growth." Boston... "Economic activity decreased slightly overall." New York... "Economic activity in the Second District continued to decline modestly amid heightened uncertainty." Philadelphia... "Business activity declined modestly in the current Beige Book period, as it did in the last period." Minneapolis... "The District contracted slightly overall." Kansas City... "Overall activity declined moderately, driven by lower retail spending, a decline in the demand for single-family homes, and a slight contraction in manufacturing." San Francisco... "Economic activity slowed slightly." 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Does this render Wednesday's market as less significant that it might otherwise be? In short, technically, the answer is "yes." Price discovery is always more meaningful and more impactful when increased trading volume implies increased professional participation. Readers will see just how incredibly accurate technical analysis has been through this recent period. On Wednesday, the index, though quiet, did build on Tuesday's confirmation of Thursday's change in trend. Is Advanced Micro Devices () getting ready to make a serious run at industry leader Nvidia () ? Is Lisa Su getting ready to make a serious run at Jensen Huang? Maybe. Check out these past few moves that largely flew under the radar: June 4th: AMD announces the acquisition of open-source software company Brium in an effort to further its prowess in generative artificial intelligence. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. May 28th: AMD announced the acquisition of silicon photonics company Enosemi to boost co-packaging and the firm's prowess in generative AI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. May 20th: AMD announced the divestiture of its ZT Systems, which is a data center manufacturing company for $3 billion. But the firm retained ZT's 1,200-person engineering team at a cost of about $1.6 billion or $1.33 million per engineer. This should improve AMD's competitiveness in the data center GPU market. My Conclusion? AMD is back among my top 10 holdings when ranked by weighting (number 10) after a long hiatus. We skipped much of the 2024 decline. Our net basis is currently $99.91. I expect to continue to buy the stock on weakness when that opportunity arises going forward. Nvidia remains my 15th heaviest allocation. I have no plans to add. 08:30 - Initial Jobless Claims (Weekly): Expecting 230K, Last 229K. 08:30 - Continuing Claims (Weekly): Last 1.919M. 08:30 - Balance of Trade (Apr): Last $-140.5B. 08:30 - Non-Farm Productivity (Q1-F): Flashed -0.8% q/q. 08:30 - Unit Labor Costs (Q1-F): Flashed 5.7% q/q. 10:30 - Natural Gas Inventories (Weekly): Last +101B cf. 12:00 p.m. - Speaker: Reserve Board Gov. Adriana Kugler. 1:30 - Speaker: Philadelphia Fed Pres. Patrick Harker. Before the Open: () (.52) After the Close: () (1.57), () (.81), () (2.60) At the time of publication, Guilfoyle was long AMD, NVDA equity. Stock Market Today: Market rises on China talks first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 5, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 5, 2025, where it first appeared.
