Federal Workforce Updates: 154k Paid Not to Work as New Tracker is Launched
Updates on the federal workforce under President Trump.
According to data compiled by the Partnership for Public Service, more than 148,000 federal employees left the workforce as of July 21, 2025. Those include employees who took the deferred resignation offer, as well as firings, forced relocations, early retirements, and voluntary departures.
The Partnership published this data as part of a new tool called the “Federal Harms Tracker” which aims to shine a light on the “scale and impact of the Trump administration’s drastic changes to the federal government.” The organization says it will update data monthly.
It also published the agencies with the ten biggest workforce reductions. That’s led by the Department of the Treasury with over 31,000 departures, mostly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), followed by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) with over 21,000, and the Department of Defense (DOD) with more than 20,000.
The Partnership tool also hopes to “highlight the types of work, programs and expertise that are endangered by disruptions to and reductions in the federal workforce.”
Deferred Resignation Program Numbers
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that 154,000 employees overall have taken the deferred resignation offer with the federal government currently paying them not to work. That amounts to 6.7 percent of the total federal civilian workforce.
Some of those employees will remain on the payroll through September 30 while others will remain until the end of 2025, before voluntarily leaving their positions. Two Office of Personnel Management (OPM) employees spoke to the Post about the numbers but declined to say just how much the government is paying out.
Still, the administration insists the short-term cost will pay off by ultimately reducing wasteful spending and streamlining operations.
“Ultimately, the deferred resignation program was not only legal, it provided over 150,000 civil servants a dignified and generous departure from the federal government,” said OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover. “It also delivered incredible relief to the American taxpayer.”
However, Democrats in Congress aren’t buying it. In a recent letter to agencies’ inspectors general, Democrats said the race to cut the size of the government may have actually cost the government over $21 billion, due to mistakes and waste during the process.
And former Biden Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Senior Adviser Cristin Dorgelo said that placing workers on administrative leave is a questionable way to trim staff.
“It’s sort of hard to overstate how inappropriate and unprecedented this is,” said Dorgelo.
Newly confirmed OPM Director Scott Kupor recently told Fox Business the total number of federal employees leaving service this year is closer to double the DRP numbers, totaling nearly 300,000.
