President Trump is moving swiftly to reduce the US federal government, the largest employer in the United States.
Trump describes the federal government as “bloated” and filled with “needless people.” The federal government is as inefficient as all large and complex organizations, but some experts say that the government’s workforce has barely grown since 1980, and some institutions and It points out that the service was already tackling a staffing shortage, including the Veterans Health Department and the Veterans Health Department. FAA’s Air Traffic Control Center.
“There are no indications that the government is particularly bloated in terms of federal workers’ numbers, and that number has not actually changed over the past decades,” says Harvard Kennedy School’s Public Policy and Management. said Elizabeth Linos, associate professor Emma Bloomberg. CBS Money Watch. “The problem we’ve faced over the past decades isn’t one of the bloating, it’s one of the vacancy.”
On Thursday, the Trump administration ordered agencies to layoffs Almost all probation employees – People who are generally less than a year at work and are not yet covered by civil servant protection can affect hundreds of thousands of workers.
As the government efficiency of Trump and Elon Musk Department pushes for a significant reduction in spending, here is a look at the country’s federal workforce and the potential impact on the Americans expanding its government. That’s what you need to know.
What are Trump and Musk doing to reduce the federal workforce?
In collaboration with billionaire Elon Musk, Trump said, “Resignation“We have plans to more than 2 million federal employees, who agree to resign and will grant payments by the end of September while they are not working. Federal judges on Tuesday. I’ve completed the program Continue after pausing.
Approximately 75,000 workers accepted the offer and the Trump administration postponed resignation program It’s closed As of February 12, the offer excludes military members, U.S. Postal Service workers, and people who work in employment related to immigration enforcement and national security.
In another move aimed at rebuilding federal workers, Trump signed an executive order this week to reduce the number of government employees and limit employment.
The administration’s order on Thursday, which cuts probational workers, is expected to be the first step to clear up layoffs. Federal government data shows that around 220,000 federal workers have less than a year in their work, making up about 9% of the government’s workforce.
“I think we need to remove the entire agency rather than leaving many agents behind,” Musk said in a video call to the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “If we don’t remove the weed roots, the weeds will come back and it’s easy.”
Is the federal workforce growing?
When Trump and Musk first accused, some policy experts point out that the federal workforce has declined compared to the US population when compared to previous decades. This result: A new study from the Center for Economic Policy Research shows that government workers are serving more U.S. residents than before.
Federal workers have declined and have declined over the years, but today their size is on the same footing as in the 1980s, when the US population was about 220 million. Today, there are over 330 million Americans.
How big is federal workers?
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 2.4 million federal workers in the United States, except for those working for US postal services. (As a self-funded agent, USPS relies on the sale of stamps and other products and services to support its operations.)
“Absolutely, federal workers are slightly smaller than they were 50 years ago, even though the US population increased by two-thirds during that period,” the 1990s reported on January 28th. National Performance Review of Management to Reduce Government Expenditures.
According to an analysis by the CEPR, in the 1940s federal workers accounted for 4.5% of non-farm workers.
How efficient is the federal workforce?
Renos, at Harvard Kennedy School, does not have a comprehensive measure of federal workforce efficiency. However, agencies usually review their own operations and identify gaps that affect their ability to provide services.
The efficiency of the federal workforce needs to be measured as to whether agencies provide services they are entrusted to handle, she added. In recent years, many agencies have added data-driven measurements to determine whether they are offering those services to Americans.
For example, the Social Security Administration’s recent annual performance report suggests that callers identify long wait times as trouble spots and shave on average 12 minutes from their 34-minute on-hold time in the fiscal year. He added. 2024. But that “ambitious goal” was being valued amid the employment freeze, the report added.
The Social Security Agency, which served as a record 68 million beneficiaries last year, is working with the smallest staff in 50 years, former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in November’s testimony to Congress. .
Certainly, the US government suffers from different types of inefficiency, with a 2024 US Government Accountability Report saying $521 billion a year will be lost, meaning that around 8% of federal spending will be lost. I’m estimating it.
Federal spending has also swelled in recent years, as most of this increase comes from increased spending on Social Security and interest on federal debt, according to the Responsible Federal Budget Commission.
Which agencies have the most federal workers?
According to data from the U.S. Office of Human Resources or OPM, the U.S. Veterans Affairs has the most federal workers with over 487,000 employees. It follows that the Department of Homeland Security, which has more than 222,000 workers. The US Army has 221,000 employees.
Some of the agencies targeted by Trump are relatively few by comparison. For example, the president is considering an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, which has around 4,200 employees.
Where are federal workers geographically based?
According to the 2024 Congressional Research Services Report, only about 7% of federal workers in appropriate Washington, D.C. are appropriate. But adding federal workers in Virginia and Maryland, Washington, D.C.’s large metro area accounts for around 20% of the total government workforce.
Approximately 80% of federal workers are located outside the metropolitan area, Washington, D.C., and civil servants are employed in all states in the United States, according to the CRS report.
Washington, D.C. has the largest number of federal workers, with the largest number of around 162,000, while other states aren’t far behind. California employs around 147,000 federal workers, and Texas employs around 130,000 workers.
Additional states with a considerable federal workforce include around 94,000 Florida and Georgia around 80,000 federal workers, analysis found.
What do typical federal workers make?
The average annual salary for federal workers exceeds $106,000, the Pew Research Center found, citing OPM data.
Federal salaries are skewed to six figures as many civil servant workers have college or professional degrees and are highly trained. The largest share of federal workers is employed in the healthcare sector. For example, doctors and nurses working at VA.
Others are experts such as accountants and lawyers who may be able to make more money if they were working for a private employer. For example, the Commodity Future Trade Commission, which regulates futures contracts and other derivatives, pays employees an average of $235,910. Approximately 40% of employees are made up of lawyers, Pugh found.
How will a much smaller federal workforce affect Americans?
Services could drop if sufficient federal workers cut or resigned, according to Renos of Harvard University. However, Americans will expect a certain level of service, such as paying benefits on time and obtaining passports in a timely manner.
To address that issue, the federal government can rely on private sector contractors to pick up slacks, she added. “It’s more expensive. You’re paying higher wages to private sector workers who are less accountable,” she pointed out.
The blow to public services could raise negative public sentiment towards the federal government, Linos added. Public confidence in the federal government has been declining for decades, with around 77% of people who trust the government to do about 22% today, according to the Pew Research Center. It has decreased from %.
“We tell people that government is bloated and feed the story of how day-to-day experiences get worse and that it’s no use,” she said.
