In the American Psychological Association’s “The Toll of Job Loss,” Dr. Carl Van Horn describes prolonged unemployment as a “psychological trauma and a financial trauma, and the two are closely intertwined.” While true for USAID FSOs, this framing fails to capture the unique dimensions of Foreign Service life that made FSOs vulnerable to not only financial and psychological harm, but also extraordinary moral injury. These survey results show significant barriers to recovery for the majority of USAID FSOs and their families. The results also offer five important takeaways: • Fewer than half of former USAID FSOs have secured full-time employment. • Younger FSOs are significantly more likely to be employed than older colleagues. • Dual-career families were hit especially hard, with 48 percent of FS households experiencing dual job loss. • FSOs, spouses, and children have all struggled with stress-related health effects. • USAID families feel a deep sense of moral injury and values violation. Challenges to Securing Employment Fifteen months after the stop-work order, only 40 percent of responding USAID FSOs had secured full-time employment. Nearly as many—39 percent—had not found any employment. The remaining respondents had cobbled together paid consulting (10.8 percent), part-time work (9.1 percent), self-employment (4 percent), or were not actively searching (7.3 percent). Underemployment is equally significant: 64 percent of those with full-time employment took a pay cut. Of those, 42 percent took a significant pay cut, making more than 25 percent less than their base U.S. government salary. 30 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL USAID FSOs built careers around specialized technical graduate degrees, mastery of U.S. foreign assistance regulations, and professional networks overseas. In 2025 the U.S. canceled more than 80 percent of its development and humanitarian programs, imploding the global aid sector. Drastically reduced employment options both within and adjacent to the development sector for USAID FSOs has been compounded by an 11.5 percent reduction in the federal workforce, loss of 29,000 nonprofit jobs nationally, and significant cuts in higher education. The likelihood of finding full-time employment decreases sharply with age: 64 percent of FSOs between 26 and 35 have found full-time employment, compared to only 14 percent of those between 56 and 65. When extracting those eligible for retirement, full-time employment for FSOs between 56 and 65 hovers around 25 percent—less than half the reemployment rate of younger colleagues. Numerous qualitative responses to the question “In your own words, what was the hardest part of the dismantling of USAID?” spoke to the direct experience or the perception of age discrimination and the challenges of starting over professionally in one’s 40s or 50s. While many younger FSOs described the strain of repaying graduate student loans undertaken to qualify for work in a now-diminished sector, their position in the labor market is often different. Younger employees may have more time to redirect their careers, fewer seniority-based expectations, and greater access to entry- and mid-level roles across adjacent fields. They may also have fewer constraints related to mortgages, children’s schooling, or long-established geographic commitments. The challenges for mid-career FSOs are also stark. Many mid-career respondents described being trapped between too We lived through coups, disease outbreaks, and evacuations. We missed funerals, weddings, graduations, and births back home. We are not hurting because we are not strong or resilient people. We are hurting because of the scale of the damage done and the betrayal and cruelty it represents. —Former USAID FSO
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=