type: timeline_event
The federal civilian workforce fell to its lowest level since 1966, dropping to levels last seen during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, despite the country's population and budget being substantially larger. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor confirmed that 317,000 employees would leave the federal workforce by the end of 2025, offset by 68,000 new hires, resulting in a net reduction of 249,000 workers. The federal payroll sat at a level not seen in nearly 60 years, representing the largest peacetime workforce reduction on record.
All cabinet departments suffered cuts, ranging from minimal reductions at the Department of Homeland Security to a 69% cut at the Department of Education. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the National Science Foundation faced approximately 40% reductions each. Virginia witnessed particularly severe impacts, losing 23,500 civilian federal jobs through November 2025, wiping out all federal job gains from the previous six years in just 11 months. The Commonwealth saw federal job losses accelerate sharply as DOGE-led reductions intensified.
Analysis from the Cato Institute confirmed DOGE helped engineer the largest peacetime workforce reduction on record, though it did not reduce federal spending, as most outlays are entitlement-driven and require congressional action. The reductions already disrupted reliability of services including Social Security, taxpayer support, and veterans' health care, creating both headaches and direct harm to people at state and local levels. Experts anticipated that transformation of the federal government into a "loyalist workforce, as opposed to a professional one" would continue moving forward in 2026, with warnings that "as challenging as 2025 was, we can expect even harder days ahead" as the impacts of workforce cuts are felt more deeply around the country.