Not every layoff in 2025 was related to chaotic cuts to federal agencies, programs and funding.
In January, an explosion ripped through the PharmaCann plant on Kent Island. A few days later, the Chicago-based owner notified the state that it would lay off all 19 employees.
The cuts might be the only major job losses in Maryland’s new cannabis economy. The plant made extracts for the national Verilife brand.
Those were among the first employment casualties over the last 12 months, a year that saw layoffs across the state.
Just how bad was it?
“Maryland had fewer layoffs for Jan-Aug 2025 compared with that same period in 2024,” wrote Dinah Winnick, spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Labor, in an email.
How is that possible?
Through September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 14,600 federal civilian employees in Maryland lost their jobs this year — the largest federal job loss in any state.
It’s equivalent to firing almost everyone with a job in Queen Anne’s County.
There is growth. It’s tiny — .5% — but given what’s been lost, it’s a surprise.
Layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Maryland alone totaled more than 2,000. Workers in Baltimore City and Montgomery, Prince George’s and Frederick counties were forced out.
But those were the only federal agency cuts listed among Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications, 60-day advance filings required under a 1988 federal law.
“Not all of the employment losses are considered layoffs,” Winnick wrote. “Some workers quit and were not replaced and some workers retired early, neither of which would appear in the layoff data.”
A company is generally only required to file a WARN notice when 33% of its workforce is laid off.
I suppose we don’t need to know the total, but layoffs are a talking point for Gov. Wes Moore and other state officials.
“I want to be clear that here in Maryland, we will continue to do everything in our power to protect our people,” he told WJZ-TV during the federal shutdown in October.
Federal cuts rippled through the state’s economy, with contractors slashing jobs to reflect the new administration’s antipathy for government support of science, social services and health care.
You can attribute 300 jobs lost at Science Systems and Applications Inc. in Lanham, and another 64 at Kira Aerospace in Greenbelt, to NASA cuts at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
Plug in 2,200 research jobs terminated by the Johns Hopkins University, though only a few hundred were in Maryland.
Even the National Security Agency, the largest government employer in Maryland, cut 2,000 jobs, according to NextGov/FCW, a news site that focuses on the details of government.
No WARN notice filed on that one. Secret stuff.
“WARN notices are an important part of understanding labor market dynamics, but they are not a proxy for total layoff numbers,” Winnick wrote.
Not every employer is required to file them, and not every layoff triggers one for those who are. Anticipated layoffs don’t always happen, and warnings sometimes reflect a company sold, between contracts or transferring jobs.
Former Gov. Larry Hogan, who has hinted at a run to regain his office, spent a lot of the year criticizing Moore for botching the economy after a friendly handoff in January 2023.
Whether the Republican runs next year or not, you can expect the economy to be a focus of Moore’s reelection campaign.
Layoffs matter because they contribute to perception of the economy. Telling the public they are wrong about layoffs, that there was actual job growth, might be a hard sell.
That’s because layoffs aren’t just a number. How do you calculate the pain when your job was the one cut?
“These federal employees who have been laid off, excuse my language, but they’re pissed off,” said Kirkland Murray, CEO of Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corp.
He’s been involved in job programs for 20 years and serves on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board.
Maybe what matters most is what happens after the layoffs.
In May, 91 employees were sent home from Little Blue Menu, the concept-testing eatery run by Chick-fil-A near the University of Maryland in College Park. Sure, that triggered a WARN notice, but after renovations over the summer, jobs were restored.
Getting federal workers back into the workforce has been harder. The state set up a special job placement office for them, and all major counties have their own efforts.
It’s just not the same as finding a new job for the 115 people who will lose their jobs when The Cheesecake Factory at Baltimore’s Harborplace closes next month.
Hospitality and food service jobs, Winnick said, were a growth area in Maryland through September.
That doesn’t help the 400 scientists, engineers and technicians who lost their paychecks this year at Catalent, a gene therapy plant in Harmans. Or the Spirit Airlines workers at BWI or staff at Corsa Coal’s subsidiary in Grantsville, all let go because of bankruptcies.
Or the 64 employees of Bell Nursery, the mid-Atlantic supplier of plants to Home Depot. Its new owners moved the company to Kentucky after 100 years in Elkridge.
It is going to be hard to convince anyone who lost their job this year that Maryland’s economy is strong, even if it added 1,200 private-sector jobs in September.
Layoff numbers are a lagging economic indicator, confirming what’s already happened. The quits rate and job openings, Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers that predict what’s ahead, won’t be out again until July.
“It’s always been hard to figure this out,” Murray said.
Here’s a solid sign. For the first time in years, his agency is seeing more job candidates than openings. Its economic forecast is trending toward a possible recession in 2026.
I couldn’t find out how the 19 employees of PharmaCann in Stevensville fared, but they probably found new work.
Their technical skills are in demand for any cannabis company making edibles, vape cartridges, creams and oils.
Maryland’s weed economy has created 15,000 jobs across every part of the state since legalization in 2023.
That’s about the same number as federal layoffs.
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