Tracking DOGE Efforts to Shrink the Size of the Federal Workforce
Where Things Stand and What the Goal Might be
On February 11, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 14210 on “Reforming the Federal Workforce to Better Serve Americans.” This EO asks heads of federal agencies to consult with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), established on January 20, to shrink the size of their workforce and limit hiring to essential positions.
EO 14210 specifies two ways that DOGE will work to “significantly reduce the size of government”:
After the expiration of the hiring freeze initiated on the first day of DOGE, agencies will be able to hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.
Agencies will undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law.
Yesterday (February 26), the Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to all heads of executive department and agencies asking them to promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force. Agencies have been asked to submit workforce reduction plans no later than March 13, 2025.
As of January 2025, there were just over three million federal government workers, excluding active military personnel. However, roughly 600,000 of those workers were Postal Service employees. Excluding Postal Service workers, there were just over 2.4 million federal government workers, with an average salary of $106,382 (excluding benefits).
The 2.4 million-strong federal government workforce can be sorted further by government department or independent agency. Based on January data, just two departments, the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Veterans Affairs (VA), together make up over half of these federal workers. Five additional departments (the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Justice (DOJ), Treasury, Agriculture (USDA), and Health and Human Services (HHS) comprise one quarter of this workforce. Together, these seven departments make up 77 percent of the 2.4 million federal government workers.
Can DOGE Efforts Match the Clinton Administration’s Achievements in Shrinking the Federal Workforce?
If the president’s overall goal is to shrink the size of the federal government workforce, then what are the numerical goals? As yet, we haven’t heard details on the numbers, but history can offer us some idea of what the goal should be. In 1993 President Bill Clinton signed an EO calling for federal agencies to cut jobs, and in 1994 he signed legislation offering to buy out nondefense federal workers. By the end of Clinton’s first term, the Clinton administration had reduced the federal workforce by 331,000 (excluding Postal Service workers).
If the Trump administration is serious about meaningfully reducing the size of the federal workforce, then it should aim to reduce the number of federal employees at least by the same amount that the Clinton administration did in the four years between 1993 and 1997. This goal would require shrinking the federal workforce to fewer than 2.09 million workers (from the current 2.42 million) over the next four years, as I show in the tracker chart below.
To monitor the progress of DOGE's federal workforce reduction efforts, I will update this tracker series monthly. This series of posts will include tracking workforce reductions, agency restructuring efforts, and any new policies or developments related to these initiatives. Stay tuned for regular updates on the Trump administration’s progress toward achieving its workforce reduction goals.