The professional services and federal contracting firms that anchor McLean's economy are losing jobs at a pace not seen in decades, as new regional data confirms the fallout from last year's federal workforce cuts is still spreading.
The Washington metropolitan region shed 100,500 jobs between May 2025 and May 2026, a 3% decline, while the rest of the country posted modest gains, according to data the Metropolitan Council of Governments citing Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. More than 50,000 of those losses were federal government positions.
For McLean, where government contractors and professional services firms fill office parks along the Dulles Toll Road and Route 123, the losses don't stop at federal payrolls. The COG report noted that the professional services sector also lost jobs as budget cuts spread through contractors and federal grantees.
Two major employers near McLean illustrate the trend.
Mitre consolidates, GDIT cuts
The Mitre Corporation, a federally funded research and development center headquartered at 7525 Colshire Drive in Tysons near the McLean Metro station, laid off 442 employees in 2025 after the Trump administration canceled thousands of federal contracts. In a rezoning application submitted to Fairfax County on Thursday, July 2, Mitre cited "changes in federal government contracting" as a key reason it needs to consolidate its 22.5-acre campus, proposing to replace three office buildings with up to 890 residential units.
General Dynamics Information Technology, which operates out of Falls Church near the McLean border, filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification in June covering 174 employees at the Pentagon, with layoffs scheduled for August. The company had already filed earlier workforce reduction notices covering employees in Falls Church and Arlington.
Inflation climbs, unemployment ticks up
The economic pain is showing up in household budgets. The DC metro region's inflation rate jumped from 3% in March to 4.1% in May, roughly matching national rates, according to the COG's economic dashboard.
Northern Virginia's unemployed count rose from 46,028 in April to 47,700 in May, according to the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. The regional unemployment rate, at 3.9%, remains below the national average of 4.4%, but the trend line has been climbing.
State leaders acknowledge the hit
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger told The Washington Post on Wednesday, July 9, that DOGE's "chainsawing attack on public servants" has put families out of work and dampened consumer spending, requiring "a long-term rebuild." The state's economy dropped nine spots to 23rd in CNBC's 2026 Top States for Business rankings because of federal budget and personnel cuts.
Virginia and some regional governments have launched programs to help laid-off federal workers and contractors find new employment, according to the COG report.
What comes next
DOGE officially ended on Friday, July 4, under the executive order that created it. Federal agencies have begun hiring again: the government posted more than 104,000 jobs on USAJobs in the first five months of 2026, up from 68,900 in the last five months of 2025, according to NOTUS, a national political news outlet.
Whether that translates into relief for McLean's contractor corridor remains uncertain. GDIT's August layoffs have not yet taken effect, and Mitre's rezoning application has not been accepted for formal county staff review. The only sector in the region to post a net gain over the past year was trade, transportation and utilities, which added about 300 jobs.
