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More than 317,000 employees will no longer work for the federal government in 2025, according to the Office of Personnel Management, a glimpse into how much the nation’s largest employers have already changed their workforces.
The agency said the majority of its employees were voluntarily bought out or taken early retirement as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to dramatically downsize the government. Tens of thousands of employees were also laid off. Some of the employees were new employees who were still on their probationary period and others who had just been promoted. Some have lost their jobs or refused to be forced to relocate because of President Trump’s crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
One of President Trump’s first orders on Jan. 20 was to create the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency to cut spending and eliminate “waste, bloat, and insularity” in the federal bureaucracy. Then, a group of DOGE employees led by billionaire Elon Musk began mass layoffs and voluntary resignations.
According to OPM, the federal government will employ 68,000 people in 2025, bringing the total number of federal civil servants nationwide to about 2.1 million. During layoffs and voluntary redundancies, the White House and OPM have consistently refused to provide hard numbers on the number of workers affected.
Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Cooper previously outlined the future of federal employment expectations in a November 2025 blog post. Coupole did not provide details on how much more the administration plans to reduce the federal workforce in 2026.
“We want to ensure the government has the right talent focused on the administration’s key priorities and eliminates wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars in areas that are inefficient, no longer needed, or directly contradict the administration’s priorities,” he said in the post.
These changes include centralizing the hiring process to reduce the number of hiring managers, evaluating how the federal government utilizes the millions of people contracted to perform federal work, and examining whether federal employee roles are efficient and meet agency needs.
Sarah D. Wire covers national politics for USA TODAY. Contact him at swire@usatoday.com.
