Federal Cuts and Public Health: Social Media Sentiment Among Federal Employees

Area of Science:

• Public health
• Mental health
• Social media analysis

Background:

• Federal workforce changes and funding cuts can impact public health employee morale.
• Sentiment analysis offers insights into the emotional state of specific professional groups.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the emotional impact of federal workforce changes on public health employees.
• To quantify changes in fear and anger among public health professionals using social media data.

Main Methods:

• Sentiment analysis was performed on 44,216 public health-related posts from the FedNews Reddit forum.
• Data spanned from 2020 to 2025, allowing for trend analysis.
• Specific metrics for fear and anger scores were tracked year-over-year.

Main Results:

• Fear scores increased by 32% in 2025 compared to 2024.
• Anger scores rose by 63% in 2025 compared to 2024.
• Significant emotional distress was observed in public health employees.

Conclusions:

• Federal workforce changes and funding cuts have a detrimental effect on public health employee mental well-being.
• The study underscores the need for supportive policies to mitigate negative mental health outcomes.
• Social media sentiment analysis can serve as a valuable tool for monitoring workforce well-being.