Federal Workforce Shrank 255,971 in 2025 — Mostly Not by Layoff
Summary
Over 2025, the federal civilian workforce shrank by 255,971 people -- 11.3% -- across the 22 major agencies GAO could get data from, with 18 of them losing more than a tenth of their staff. But GAO's own breakdown of how those departures happened undercuts the layoff narrative: only 1.7% of the 377,722 people who left did so through a formal reduction in force. Nearly 80% retired, resigned, or took the government's paid deferred resignation offer -- and when agencies did try to force people out with RIF notices last fall, Congress retroactively voided them.
The scale of the cut
The decline touched every agency tracked, but not evenly. Homeland Security's workforce barely moved, down 0.9%⧉ from 231,337 to 229,342. Defense -- the government's largest civilian employer by headcount -- lost 10.7%, in line with the overall average. Treasury lost more than a quarter of its staff (26.1%), and Education lost nearly half (45.6%). Two agencies outside 's official count fell further still: the Small Business Administration and both declined to answer 's data request, but OPM's own public Federal Workforce Data site⧉ shows down 37% (8,611 to 5,418 employees) and down 95% (4,895 to just 258).
View data as table
| Homeland Security (smallest decline) | -0.9% | 231,337 to 229,342 employees |
|---|---|---|
| Defense | -10.7% | 778,188 to 695,248 employees -- the largest agency by headcount |
| All 22 reporting agencies combined | -11.3% | 2,268,585 to 2,012,614 employees |
| Health and Human Services | -19.6% | 93,035 to 74,795 employees |
| Treasury | -26.1% | 117,063 to 86,461 employees |
| Education (largest decline) | -45.6% | 4,273 to 2,326 employees |
View data as table
| Small Business Administration | -37% | 8,611 to 5,418 employees -- SBA did not respond to GAO's data request |
|---|---|---|
| USAID | -95% | 4,895 to 258 employees -- USAID did not respond to GAO's data request |
Voluntary exit, not mostly layoffs
The mechanism matters as much as the headline number. GAO's breakdown of how those 377,722 people left⧉ shows the overwhelming majority walked rather than were pushed: 45.7% took an ordinary retirement or resignation, and another 34.0% left through the government-wide deferred resignation program -- paid administrative leave through a set separation date in exchange for agreeing to go. Combined, that's 79.7% of every 2025 departure. A formal reduction in force -- the actual involuntary-layoff process, with advance notice and competitive retention rights -- accounted for just 6,331 separations, 1.7% of the total. Add the smaller category of employees who took early retirement specifically because of a RIF or reorganization, and the RIF-related share only rises to 4.4%.
View data as table
| Ordinary retirement or resignation | 45.7% | 172,527 separations -- not tied to the RIF or the deferred resignation program |
|---|---|---|
| Deferred resignation program | 34% | 128,589 separations -- paid administrative leave until departure |
| Formal reduction in force | 1.7% | 6,331 separations -- the actual involuntary-layoff mechanism |
| All other separations | 18.6% | 70,275 -- RIF-related early retirement, probationary terminations, other removals, and miscellaneous |
The layoffs that didn't happen
That's not for lack of trying. Agencies issued RIF notices during the October-November 2025 government shutdown, but the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026⧉ retroactively voided every RIF notice issued between October 1 and November 12, 2025, and barred agencies from issuing new ones through January 30, 2026 -- Congress, not litigation alone, pulled the emergency brake on the one mechanism designed to force people out involuntarily. Hiring didn't come close to offsetting any of it: agencies reported just 127,360 hires against 377,722 separations, replacing fewer than one in three departures. The workforce still shrank by a quarter of a million people. It just did it mostly through resignation incentives, not layoffs.
- The federal civilian workforce fell 255,971 people (-11.3%) in about thirteen months -- from 2,268,585 (Dec. 2024) to 2,012,614 (Jan. 2026) across the 22 Act agencies that gave data; 18 of 22 lost more than a tenth of their staff.
- Two non-reporting agencies fell hardest of all. The Small Business Administration (-37%) and (-95%) both declined 's data request; their declines come from 's own published Federal Workforce Data website, a secondary source cites but did not independently collect.
- Only 1.7% of departures were a formal reduction in force. Nearly 80% were ordinary retirement/resignation or the deferred resignation program -- a workforce cut engineered mostly through incentives to leave, not through involuntary layoffs.
- Congress retroactively killed the RIF notices agencies did issue. The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 voided every RIF notice from October 1-November 12, 2025 and barred new ones through January 30, 2026, after agencies tried to use RIFs during the fall shutdown.
- Hiring never came close to keeping pace. 127,360 hires against 377,722 separations across the 22 reporting agencies -- replacing fewer than one in three departures, so nearly all of the net decline reflects deliberate attrition, not simply high turnover with backfill.
's primary data collection and Tables 1-3 cover 22 of the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies; the Small Business Administration and did not provide the data requested and are excluded from 's own separations/hires totals and from this piece's KPIs and dataset totals. Their standalone decline percentages (-37% and -95%) come from 's public Federal Workforce Data website, which itself cites as a secondary source rather than agency-submitted data it independently verified. The 79.7% combined voluntary/DRP share and the 4.4% broader RIF-related share are this publication's own arithmetic on 's published Table 3 categories, not sums states directly -- though every input figure is 's own. Litigation over probationary-employee terminations and 2025 RIFs remained ongoing as of this report, so some separation counts could shift if further court action reverses effects already reflected in this data.
Sources(1) ▾
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, Federal Agency Workforce Changes: Update for July 2025 to January 2026 (GAO-26-108583) (2026-06-17) — correspondence to congressional requesters providing the second update on how federal agencies reduced the size of their workforces during 2025 following presidential directives -- a hiring freeze, a government-wide deferred resignation program (DRP), probationary-employee terminations, and reductions in force (RIFs). Reports headcount, hires, and separations for all of 2025 across 22 of 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies (the Small Business Administration and did not provide requested data), broken down by agency and by type of separation. Also describes 's Federal Workforce Data website. Fetched directly from gao.gov (no bot-challenge encountered on this fetch). gao.gov · original document
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Over 2025, the federal government's civilian workforce shrank at every one of the 22 major agencies could get data from -- from a bare 0.9% dip at Homeland Security to a 45.6% collapse at the Department of Education. GAO's June 2026 accounting⧉ puts the combined total at 2,268,585 employees in December 2024, falling to 2,012,614 by January 2026 -- a loss of 255,971 people, or 11.3%, in about thirteen months. Eighteen of the 22 agencies lost more than a tenth of their staff.