KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Congressman Emanuel Cleaver represents the Fifth District of Missouri. He says unemployment numbers will rise in Kansas City amid federal job cuts.

“The federal government is the largest employer. There are 30,000 federal employees in Kansas City,” Congressman Cleaver shared.

Congressman Cleaver says this number does not include postal workers. He also says that “most fair-minded people believe that there can always be trimming back in the federal government and the spending,” but what’s happening currently is being done haphazardly, he says.

Shannon Ellis, the president of Chapter 66 of the National Treasury Employee Union in Kansas City, Missouri, says this is unacceptable.

“I am furious that this is happening on our campus, and we are in the middle of tax season, so yes, we know that the public will be impacted,” Ellis shared on Facebook.

Ellis said online some probationary employees will be laid off as of Wednesday. She also shared steps online for employees who need to obtain essential documents.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley says the country can afford to reduce the size of the federal workforce.

“About 80 percent of federal workers have not been showing up to work for the last three years. Literally, you could walk down the streets of Washington D.C., look at all these federal buildings that taxpayers are paying for, and you’ll find that the lights are off and the offices are empty. So, they must not be that essential. My view is the federal workforce is incredibly bloated,” Senator Hawley shared.

“I think President Trump going after that kind of waste, that kind of abuse,  
that he and his administration have been uncovering is fantastic. What that will mean is more money that can be delivered where it should go, which is to the American taxpayer and to the working people of Missouri.”

The Associated Press reported that “this comes as the Trump administration Trump intensified sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection.”

FOX4 reached out to the IRS for a comment on this story but has yet to receive a response.