The air in Washington D.C. has been thick with anxiety since January 2025. It’s not just the usual political bickering. For federal workers, it’s been a year of watching the person at the next desk disappear. We’ve heard the headlines about "slashing the bureaucracy" and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but if you’re looking for a hard count on how many federal employees have been fired so far, the answer is a bit of a moving target.
Honestly, the numbers are staggering. As of mid-January 2026, the federal workforce has shrunk by roughly 228,598 people compared to this time last year. That is nearly 10% of the entire civilian workforce gone in just twelve months.
But "fired" is a tricky word in the government world. If you ask the administration, they’ll tell you most of these people left "voluntarily." If you ask the workers who felt they had a gun to their head, they’ll tell you a very different story.
Breaking Down the 322,000 Separations
To understand what’s actually happening, you have to look at the total number of people who left, which is about 322,049 since the second Trump administration took office.
Wait. If 322,000 left but the total workforce is only down by about 228,000, what gives? Basically, the government is still hiring in some areas—mostly for border patrol and immigration enforcement. It's a "one door opens, another slams shut" kind of situation.
Here is the reality of how those 322,000 people actually exited:
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- The "Fork in the Road" Program: This was the big one. Early in 2025, Elon Musk and DOGE offered a "deferred resignation" deal. About 154,000 employees took the bait. They agreed to resign but got paid through September 2025.
- Involuntary Firings: Around 24,000 people were straight-up fired. This includes 17,000 who were caught in official "Reductions in Force" (RIFs) and about 7,000 probationary employees who were dismissed with almost no notice.
- Routine Attrition: About 129,000 people just retired or quit for their own reasons. Though, let’s be real—a lot of that "routine" quitting was likely spurred by the new 5-day-a-week in-office mandate that killed remote work for thousands.
The Agencies That Got Hit the Hardest
It wasn't a slow trim across the board. Some agencies were basically gutted. If you worked at the Department of Education or the EPA, 2025 felt like an extinction event.
The Department of Education lost about 33% of its staff. In Maryland alone—a hub for federal workers—the state lost nearly 25,000 federal jobs in 2025. That’s the highest loss of any state in the country.
NASA took a massive hit, too. They lost 4,890 people, including over 2,000 senior-level staff. It’s hard to launch rockets when your most experienced engineers are suddenly out of a job. Even the Social Security Administration, which everyone relies on, saw its workforce dip, leading to those massive wait times you've probably noticed if you've tried to call them lately.
The Late-Year Surge: The 43-Day Shutdown
Things got really ugly in October 2025. The government went into the longest shutdown in U.S. history—43 days. During that chaos, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) started issuing "substantial" RIF notices.
Just as 2025 was wrapping up, the Department of Veterans Affairs dropped a bombshell, cutting around 35,000 jobs in December. Most of those were related to healthcare.
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Is This Even Legal?
You’ve probably seen the news about the lawsuits. There are dozens of them. In May 2025, a judge actually tried to stop the mass layoffs, but by July, the Supreme Court stepped in and said the administration could proceed.
One of the biggest points of contention was Schedule F. This was the executive order that reclassified thousands of career civil servants as "at-will" employees, meaning they could be fired for almost any reason. It stripped away the protections that have existed for decades to keep the government from being a "spoils system" where you only keep your job if you agree with the person in charge.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Cuts
A lot of folks think these cuts are just "middle management" or "paper pushers." Sorta true, but not entirely. We're talking about:
- Hurricane Hunters: NOAA lost flight directors and scientists who track flood risks.
- Safety Inspectors: At the FAA, 400 people were let go.
- Healthcare Workers: As mentioned, the VA and HHS saw thousands of departures.
The administration argues that the government has become a bloated "fourth branch" that needs to be reigned in. They want a leaner machine. But the "lean machine" has led to a massive backlog in everything from passport processing to tax refunds.
What Happens in 2026?
If you think it’s over, think again. Leaked emails from FEMA recently suggested a plan to cut their staff in half—that’s another 10,000 positions on the chopping block this year.
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The 2026 budget proposal currently sitting in Congress aims to slash another 107,000 jobs from non-defense agencies. That would be an additional 7% reduction. While Congress might fight back on some of this, the trend is pretty clear. The goal is a federal workforce that looks more like it did in the 1960s, despite the U.S. population being nearly double what it was then.
How to Protect Yourself if You’re Still in the System
If you are one of the 2 million or so people still holding a federal ID badge, the "wait and see" approach probably isn't enough anymore.
- Document Everything: If you're a career employee, keep records of your performance reviews. If a RIF (Reduction in Force) comes for your department, your "standing" often depends on your performance ratings and years of service.
- Check Your "Schedule": Know if your position has been moved to "Schedule F" or another excepted service category. It changes your rights completely.
- Update Your Private Sector Resume: Kinda grim, I know. But with agencies like the Small Business Administration losing 42% of their staff, no one is truly "safe."
- Stay Informed via Unions: Even if you aren't a member, groups like the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) are the ones tracking the legal battles that might actually save your job.
The reality of how many federal employees have been fired so far is that we are witnessing the most aggressive shrinking of the U.S. government in modern history. Whether you see it as a "long-overdue house cleaning" or "the destruction of essential services," the numbers don't lie: the federal government is a much smaller, and much different, place than it was a year ago.
Next Steps for Federal Workers:
You should immediately verify your current employment status and civil service protections through your agency’s HR portal. If your position has been reclassified under the latest executive orders, consult with a legal representative or your union to understand your updated rights regarding termination and appeals.