Tracking Efforts to Shrink the Size of the Federal Workforce: December 2025 Update

As part of the agreement to pass a continuing resolution and reopen the government, Congress and the White House agreed to pause reductions in force (RIF)—the formal process agencies use to lay off federal employees. The pause is expected to last through the end of January, so we will see a slowdown in workforce reduction numbers in both the December and January jobs reports.

What the numbers show

December’s jobs report marks the tenth Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report to capture at least some of the workforce restructuring and agency-level staffing adjustments initiated after the new administration issued Executive Order (EO) 14210 on “Reforming the Federal Workforce to Better Serve Americans.”

As of December 2025, there were 2.74 million federal government workers, excluding active military personnel. However, 593,000 of those workers were Postal Service employees. Excluding Postal Service workers, there were 2.14 million federal government workers. This is an increase of 1,400 from November, and a total decline in the federal workforce of 265,800 since January 2025.

Revisions to October and November numbers also reveal that the notable drop in October following the September 30 deferred resignation deadline was larger than initially estimated. Specifically, the drop in federal employment in October was 16,800 more than initial figures suggested. In total, the number of federal workers dropping off government payrolls between September and October was 178,100.

Back-of-the-Envelope Fiscal Savings Estimate

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has data on the weighted average salary of all federal workers between September 30, 2024, and March 31, 2025. OPM data reveal that this average weighted salary is approximately $110,000. Prior Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis suggests that federal worker salary is only about 60% of total compensation including benefits, meaning total federal worker costs are around $183,000.

Given that 265,800 federal workers are no longer on government payrolls, annual fiscal savings are somewhere in the neighborhood of $48.6 billion.

Shrinking the Federal Workforce: Trump vs. Clinton

Reducing the number of federal employees by the same amount that the Clinton administration did during his first term would require shrinking the federal workforce to fewer than 2.08 million workers by 2028. Reducing the size of the federal workforce back to the Clinton-era lows of 1999 would require shrinking that number down to 1.88 million.

The first figure below shows the month-by-month comparison between workforce reductions under the Clinton administration and those under the current Trump administration. The second shows the Trump administration’s efforts so far in relation to the ultimate goal of matching the scale of Clinton’s cuts.

This series covers 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 federal workforce reduction goals.

You can read my previous updates for February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and November.