DOGE Firings Crop Up in Jobs Data But Total Scope Still Lags

The Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce is beginning to show up in employment data, with the brunt of those cuts still to come.

So far this year, civilian non-postal federal employment has fallen by 12,400, or 0.5%. That’s the biggest quarterly decline since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency announced plans to cut tens of thousands of federal jobs.

The three-month reduction in the federal workforce is the biggest for a new administration since such jobs fell by 0.9% after former President Bill Clinton took ...