Thursday is the deadline for federal agencies and departments to give the Trump administration their plans for large-scale layoffs, and the details about how many people will be fired are expected to leak out throughout the day.
The mass layoff notices come as the Republican-controlled Congress fights over funding the government to avoid a shutdown on Friday. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has ratcheted up tariff threats against America’s allies, including Canada and the European Union, and they have responded, in turn, with steep tariffs. The back-and-forth has sparked uncertainty among U.S. stocks – and fears of a recession.
In an effort led by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department Of Government Efficiency aides, more than 100,000 federal employees have already lost their jobs in the last two months through layoffs of probationary employees, who are new to government work or recently moved between agencies or accepted a promotion. Another about 75,000 federal employees accepted the original buyout offer Trump extended shortly after he took office.
It remains unclear how many of the about 2 million federal employees spread out across the country could lose their jobs under the new layoff plans, called a “reduction in force” or RIF. The memo ordering agencies to produce the reduction in force plans called for “a significant reduction.” Agencies can whittle down personnel through layoffs, attrition, removal of underperforming employees or renegotiation of collective bargaining agreements.
The White House has so far declined to talk about when the public will see the plans due anytime on Thursday to the Office of Personnel Management, however, the target numbers of layoffs for each agency and perhaps even location are expected to leak throughout the day and coming weeks as employees get word of them. The layoffs do not have to occur on Thursday. There is no specific deadline by which agencies must deliver the news that targeted employees’ jobs will end within 30 or 60 days.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that details on the terminations would be available after Thursday’s deadline.
“This is a goal that every Cabinet secretary across the board agrees with,” Leavitt said. “We have to reduce our workforce. We have to make our bureaucracy more efficient. And then, when the March 13 deadline hits, we can talk about that then.”
Some of these plans have already been put in motion. About half of Department of Education employees were laid off Wednesday. That same day the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began notifying 1,068 civilian employees that they were eligible for a buyout. Earlier in the week USA TODAY also learned that the Department of Veterans Affairs was laying off about 16% or 76,000 workers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is laying off more than 1,000 people, or about 20% of its staff. Likewise, NASA told employees Monday it would shutter three offices, including the office of the chief scientist.
Although Trump’s efforts to downsize the government have focused largely on federal workers, it’s worth noting that the size of the federal workforce hasn’t substantially changed since the late 1960s, when there were about 2 million federal employees, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The government has consistently employed between 1.8 and 2.4 million people over the past 60 years. Over the same period, the U.S. population grew nearly 40 percent, from 203 million in 1970 to 331 million in 2020.
Federal employees work and live in all 50 states. Only about 15% percent live in Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. Layoffs of probationary employees have already resulted in protests around the country, including at national parks.
