Federal workforce hits 60-year low as Trump administration cuts staff

The federal workforce has fallen to its lowest level in approximately 60 years, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that 2.67 million people were employed by the government as of August. This figure represents a decline from just over 3 million employees when President Donald Trump took office, marking the lowest headcount since 1966. The reductions were driven primarily by the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Personnel Management, fulfilling a major campaign promise made during the 2024 presidential run to slim down what the president described as a bloated government.

The administration estimates that these cuts will generate significant financial savings. The Office of Personnel Management projects that its Deferred Resignation Program alone will save more than $20 billion annually. However, the downsizing has carried operational costs for specific agencies. According to a Treasury watchdog, revenue collected from Internal Revenue Service examinations dropped by 35%, falling from about $10 billion in fiscal 2024 to $6.5 billion in fiscal 2025. This decline coincided with steep workforce reductions at the IRS, which cut examination and collection staffing by nearly 10,000 employees.

Not all government departments experienced uniform reductions. The Departments of Education, Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development faced particularly hard cuts, while headcount at the Department of Homeland Security remained largely unchanged. The Department of Homeland Security has been responsible for carrying out much of the president's immigration agenda. The Bureau of Labor Statistics count excludes roughly 1.35 million members of the armed services and approximately 100,000 people employed by intelligence agencies.

The financial impact of the workforce changes has been mixed. The Government Accountability Office found that agencies spent about $6.7 billion paying employees who participated in the Deferred Resignation Program, a scheme that allowed staff to stop working while continuing to collect paychecks until they officially left government service. Additionally, the Partnership for Public Service estimated that the government spent $12.1 million rehiring workers who had previously been fired during these reductions. Despite these specific expenditures and the overall reduction in headcount, federal salary spending under the Trump administration in its first year exceeded the amount spent during the Biden administration's first year by 3%.

The IRS is facing further changes, with the Trump administration proposing additional cuts for 2027. This follows previous investments made under former President Joe Biden, who secured nearly $80 billion over 10 years in 2022 to upgrade IRS systems, improve taxpayer service, and hire more staff, including enforcement personnel. Looking ahead, if Republicans win the midterm elections, President Trump has promised to issue $5,000 checks to all adult American citizens. A former Congress budget chief warned that this long-shot promise could join a stack of past unfulfilled pledges, noting it would cost the nation between $1.2 trillion and $1.35 trillion if implemented.