National Guard call-ups drive record absences from US full-time jobs
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Military-related job absences spike in 2025 amid Donald Trump's National Guard deployments and legal challenges over Posse Comitatus violations.
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Members of the District of Columbia National Guard patrol the passenger area in Union Station, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington (AP)
More Americans are missing their full-time jobs this year because of military or civic duties, hitting a level not seen in nearly two decades, coinciding with President Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard and other military branches.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there have been 90,000 instances so far this year of full-time employees missing work to report for military service or other civic duties, such as jury duty and voting.
Although not all of these absences can be attributed to military deployment, particularly those specific to the National Guard, a comparison with months featuring heightened National Guard activity shows that at least some of the data can be explained by this factor.
Absences hit record high in 2025
In January, approximately 22,000 absences were recorded, which was the highest number so far this year, and that same month, the National Guard was deployed to California during the wildfires and to Washington, DC, to assist in the transfer of power between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
In June, when Donald Trump ordered the National Guard and some Marines into Los Angeles to help control anti-immigration protests, there were approximately 10,000 absence incidents.
Military-related work absences fluctuate throughout the year and often spike during certain disaster seasons, such as hurricane season, as reported by The Washington Post. However, 2025 has already surpassed the number of military or civic-duty-related work absences in any year since 2006.
The last time the US saw a high number of this type of absence was in 2006, when former president George W. Bush deployed a large number of National Guard troops to the US–Mexico border, as well as to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump's deplyoments put him in legal trouble, again
Deploying the National Guard without a state governor's consent is a controversial move that has created legal problems for Trump, as a federal judge in California ruled his decision to federalize the state's guard was unlawful and violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using the military for domestic law enforcement.
The attorney general of Washington, DC has used a similar argument to claim Trump violated laws by deploying the National Guard into the capital to control crime last month, although, unlike individual states, the DC National Guard falls under federal authority.
However, Trump has vowed to appeal the California ruling and is likely to contest the DC lawsuit, as he continues to threaten mainly Democrat-run cities with National Guard deployment.
In a statement to The Washington Post, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly defended the president's actions, stating that he rightfully deployed the National Guard to cities like Los Angeles that were ravaged by violent riots while also working to strengthen small businesses and revitalize the national economy.
