Trump Administration Makes Tech Push as Agencies Lose Around 20,000 Tech Workers
The federal government lost about 20,000 technology workers in the past year with most of those departures voluntary through the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), early retirement, and simply leaving for a new job.
Now, the Trump Administration is making a big push to get tech workers back in the door.
GovExec reports that the six agencies that saw the biggest number of IT management employees exit all have IT jobs listed on USAJobs right now. Those agencies are the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, as well as the General Services Administration.
Digging deeper into the numbers, workers in IT management, computer science, computer engineering, data science, and telecom, accounted for about 5.5 percent of all departing feds in 2025. Just two thousand or so were hired, driving the net loss to 17,228.
Still, the administration says the displacement of tech workers is not hurting mission delivery.
“Disruption is not intrinsically a bad thing,” said Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Chief Information Officer (CIO) Greg Barbaccia. “It remains to be seen. We haven't seen major system disruptions across the board.”
U.S. Tech Force Hiring
Nevertheless, the administration has made tech hiring a focal point and is starting up the U.S. Tech Force to get more technology workers in the door. The administration is hoping to hire about 1,000 people into the program and has already received about 6,000 applications. The two-year program is focusing on highly skilled applicants in areas like artificial intelligence, software engineering, data analytics, and cybersecurity.
“Tech Force is one of several efforts to address those long-standing challenges by modernizing how government recruits and deploys technical talent, with a strong focus on bringing in early-career technologists,” said OPM Director Scott Kupor to NextGov/FCW. “It’s focused on filling hard-to-staff roles, accelerating hiring, and ensuring technologists are placed on high-impact missions where they can deliver real results.”
