The federal workforce has shrunk by more than 352,000 employees since President Trump took office last year, through firings, resignations and retirements, according to numbers released from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics through Federal Reserve Economic Data.
The federal workforce is smaller today than at any point since 1966.
Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, hailed the numbers, saying on X, “I voted for this. Did you?”
According to the most recent BLS data, in January 2026, federal government employment dipped by 34,000, as some federal employees who had accepted a deferred resignation offer in 2025 were removed from the federal payrolls.
As of February, the BLS recorded 2,683,000 federal employees, and since the October 2024 peak, federal employment is down by 355,000, or 11.8%. The March 2026 figure is expected to be even lower, around 2,665,000.
As of January, there were approximately 2.69 million federal government workers, excluding active military personnel, down significantly from its recent peak.
In the late 1950s, the federal civilian workforce rose from about 2.2–2.3 million to 2.6–2.7 million in the early-to-mid 1960s, and then stayed around that level for the following six decades.
The recent mass shedding of the federal workforce is considered significant when compared to even the Clinton-era federal workforce reductions of the 1990s. That effort peeled off hundreds of thousands of jobs but brought the number down to about 2.7–2.8 million before it steadied, which makes the current level relatively historically and not seen in more than 60 years.
The Department of Government Efficiency, which was previously headed up by Elon Musk for the first few months of Mr. Trump’s second term, drove some of the reduction in the federal workforce.
Layoffs targeted nearly half the Education Department staff amid a broader effort by the Trump administration and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to eliminate the department.
The IRS has shed more than 26,000 employees and aims to reduce the agency’s workforce to fewer than 60,000 employees. That would be a significant decrease from the more than 100,000 IRS workers during the Biden administration.
DOGE announced on X last December that agencies had cut or reduced nearly 100 “wasteful” contracts that, if fully implemented, would have cost taxpayers more than $5 billion. The money had been directed to “develop a comprehensive strategic narrative and management approach aimed at the Human Centered Transformation and Enhanced Partnerships” and a Pentagon consulting contract for “strategic transformation and enterprise project support.”
It slashed another $29 million by ending a Commerce Department consulting contract for “providing the necessary staff to perform Program Management, providing planning, analysis, and support in managing projects.”
