Trump administration plans 300,000 federal job cuts

The Trump administration is preparing to reduce the federal civilian workforce by around 300,000 jobs this year, representing a 12.5% contraction since January, according to the new head of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Speaking in Washington on Thursday, OPM Director Scott Kupor told reporters that approximately 80% of the planned reductions will result from voluntary departures, while the remainder will be through dismissals. His remarks were first reported by Bloomberg.

“This is about improving efficiency across the federal government,” Kupor said. “I cannot force people to lay people off. I have to persuade cabinet secretaries to buy into this vision of government efficiency.”

The cuts would nearly double the number of federal employees who accepted buyouts in recent months. According to OPM figures cited by Reuters, around 154,000 employees left through voluntary buyouts in the previous round of downsizing.

Since returning to office in January for his second term, President Donald Trump has signalled that shrinking the size of the federal government is a central plank of his domestic policy. He has repeatedly described the 2.4-million-strong civilian workforce as “bloated” and “inefficient.”

The latest workforce reduction, if fully implemented, would be the sharpest contraction in decades. For comparison, attrition in the US government’s civilian workforce stood at 5.9% in fiscal year 2023, according to data compiled by the non-profit Partnership for Public Service. The projected 300,000 departures this year would more than double that rate.

Voluntary exits vs. firings

While the administration is framing the move as largely voluntary, Kupor acknowledged that around 20% of the reductions will involve firings, raising concerns about job security for tens of thousands of public servants.

He noted that agency-level headcount details will be published at a later date by OPM. For now, the cuts are expected to span multiple departments, with cabinet secretaries tasked with preparing their own proposals for workforce reductions.

Those proposals will be submitted to White House Budget Director Russ Vought, whose office is drafting the president’s upcoming budget request to Congress. Kupor confirmed he had met with budget officials this week to coordinate the process.

A shift from earlier directives

Kupor’s comments mark a departure from the approach during the early months of Trump’s second term, when OPM leadership explicitly directed agencies to dismiss employees new to their roles, according to a court filing reported by The Washington Post.

The softer tone on voluntary exits reflects the administration’s effort to frame the cuts as strategic rather than punitive. However, federal employee unions and policy experts have warned that large-scale departures could erode institutional capacity, especially in agencies responsible for critical services.

The OPM will release detailed agency-level figures later this year. Meanwhile, agencies are drafting their own downsizing proposals for review by the budget office. Those recommendations will shape Trump’s budget request to Congress, expected early next year.

For now, the administration insists that most of the 300,000 departures will be voluntary, with buyout packages designed to encourage attrition. Still, the scale of the reductions—and the potential for 60,000 involuntary dismissals—marks one of the most aggressive efforts to shrink the federal workforce in modern history.

As the process unfolds, the political debate is set to intensify over whether the cuts will deliver efficiency or cripple essential government functions.