What We Know About the Trump Administration’s Cuts to the Federal Work Force

Notes and Methodology

The figures above are most likely an undercount. Agencies that have let go of an unspecified number of employees are not reflected here.

Outside of the general effort to shrink the size of the federal work force and gut diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Mr. Trump has also targeted specific individuals at a number of independent agencies, many of which are also not reflected here.

Most federal agencies have not made verified numbers public, and no centralized database of confirmed figures exists. As a result, The New York Times compiled data from sources within the federal agencies, court documents and press statements.

Confirmed cuts: The number of federal workers who have been sent termination notices, fired, laid off, placed on administrative leave, sent home or who were told to halt work, regardless of subsequent reinstatements because of court order or agency reversals.

Confirmed buyouts: In February, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management said that about 75,000 workers across departments had accepted deferred resignation offers. Confirmed buyouts shown here do not reflect that entire total, and they are shown only when information about the number of buyouts at a particular agency level is known.

More planned reductions: Can include a combination of buyouts, firings and layoffs. In some cases, the breakdown between the three categories was not specified.

To determine the amount of the proposed reduction in each agency or subagency’s work force, The Times compiled these numbers into a database alongside data on agency size, as of September 2024, from the O.P.M. database on federal employment. More recent numbers on agency sizes were used where available.