The government’s human resources department, the Office of Personnel Management, announced Monday that it has laid off 10% of its workforce and intends to further reduce it by the end of the year.
When President Trump returned to the White House on January 20, the agency employed 3,110 people. Some are departing without incentives, while hundreds are departing through incentive programs. Over 125 people have lost their jobs.
Scott Kupor, the recently confirmed director, told reporters on Monday that he anticipated staffing to fall below 2,000 by the year’s end.
According to Mr. Kupor, the agency was also halving its contractors, which had gone from roughly 1,200 at the start of the year to 600 by the end of December.
For months, organizations have been receiving suggestions from the personnel office on how to reduce staff and combine or discontinue activities. The number of employees the government would have to fire in order to meet President Trump’s aim of reducing the size of the federal workforce has changed as a result of agencies providing incentives for voluntary resignations.
While 152 employees resigned without taking part in any of the incentive programs, 788 employees at the personnel office used the incentives to retire early or resign and continue to receive their salaries through September 30. The organization let go of 129 more workers.
The prospect of layoffs has been present from the beginning of the government, but the personnel office did not disclose what other agencies had planned. This spring, 10,000 employees were let go by the Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, after the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ban on mass government firings, the State Department laid off nearly 1,000 workers on July 11.
With thousands of workers quitting the government on their own will, the anticipated number of reductions has changed, and the majority of agencies have not made any announcements on layoff plans. Because so many people choose to quit, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced that it will not have to lay off employees.