Betsy Wolf has a doctorate in education, a record of publishing research and a strong professional network. What she doesn’t have is a full-time job.
In March, Wolf was placed on leave at the research arm of the Education Department. She was officially let go from her position compiling evidence of what works in schools—along with many of her colleagues—at the beginning of this month. The dozens of applications she has submitted to find a new job have yielded just a handful of interviews and no offers.
Wolf is among a highly specialized group of professionals trying to remake or salvage careers after federal cuts hit their tiny industry—in this case, the niche and government-dependent field of education research. The Trump administration has argued that the federal research infrastructure was ineffective, outdated and politically biased.
Some workers are fishing for consulting gigs or competing for a shrinking number of roles in education. Others are trying to pivot to different lines of work, such as insurance or technology.
Eric Hedberg, who has a Ph.D in sociology, had worked for nearly two decades on federal contracts to study education and other government programs. In February, many of those contracts vanished, as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through the Education Department.
He changed his résumé to nix jargon common in the research world and instead pitched his statistical expertise elsewhere. Hedberg soon landed a job as a data scientist at an insurance company. Now, he isn’t looking back at his old industry. “It’s an intellectual dust bowl—there are no crops coming out of this ground anymore,” Hedberg said.
The turmoil shows a striking way that federal cutbacks are cascading across the economy, as the job market softens. The government has also frozen funds at universities—another main source of employment for education researchers.
“It’s not like I’m losing my job,” Wolf said. “It’s like I’m losing my field, my entire career pathway.”
The few job postings are often inundated with applicants. The Center on Reinventing Public Education, an education think tank, attracted a roughly 50% rise in applications, compared with a prior search, for two recently open roles.
“My LinkedIn just was like a graveyard,” said Elizabeth Tipton, a statistician at Northwestern University. “When an entire field is laid off, where are they supposed to find jobs?” Tipton is the president of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, whose members have been heavily affected by federal cuts, she said.
With an annual budget of about $800 million, the Institute of Education Sciences, the Education Department’s research arm, has produced basic facts about schools, supported studies of specific programs and run centers to help educators use research. Researchers say that if IES isn’t rebuilt, educators and policymakers will be in the dark about how to improve and understand American schools.
“The Trump administration is committed to spending taxpayer dollars responsibly and on programs and activities that are best serving students, families and educators,” said Madi Biedermann, a spokeswoman for the department.
Eric Mason worked at IES managing contracts for research centers, known as Regional Educational Laboratories, designed to help schools solve difficult problems, such as filling teacher shortages. Since being placed on leave in March, Mason has put out 80 job applications and gotten zero interviews.
A former teacher, he has started applying for teaching positions, after more than a decade outside the classroom. He has also looked for roles in sales or client success—“anything that would get me some kind of income,” he said. At age 54, he is worried that potential employers will quickly pass him by.
Former department staffers have been watching the courts, hoping for a lifeline. The Supreme Court recently undid a lower-court edict directing the Trump administration to retain Education Department workers. Three lawsuits from education-research groups have failed to win preliminary rulings.
However, on Friday a federal district court ordered the Trump administration to restore the Regional Educational Laboratories at IES. The administration said that doing so might prove impracticable because contractors have already laid off staffers.
In his recent budget request, President Trump is seeking to cut annual funding for IES by two-thirds, although Congress might not go along with that plan. The Education Department has brought on an adviser, Amber Northern, “to re-envision” the institute’s work.
The impact of the research cuts extends beyond the department itself. Dan Frederking had been working at the American Institutes for Research, a private research firm that lost a number of federal contracts. He was among about 500 people, over 30% of the company, laid off earlier this year.
He has landed a part-time role as an adjunct professor and is trying to drum up work as an independent consultant—where he is competing with other laid-off workers.
Frederking is applying for data roles in school districts and professorships at small colleges in the Milwaukee area, where he lives. “I personally feel I would be a great candidate but convincing people of that…that’s always a challenge,” he said.
Write to Matt Barnum at matt.barnum@wsj.com