Federal Workforce’s Toll After a Year of DOGE and Trump: 317,000

The number of federal employees who left their jobs in 2025 will total about 317,000, according to the Office of Personnel Management, after efforts by Elon Musk and the Trump administration to reshape the government workforce.

In the most detailed official accounting to date, OPM Director Scott Kuporsaid Wednesday in a post on X that the overwhelming majority of those departures were voluntary. Approximately 24,000 separations this year were involuntary, including 17,000 reductions-in-force. Another 21,000 employees took early retirement or buyouts, and 129,000 left through what OPM characterized as routine attrition.

Kupor said the overall numbers show that ...