It started with a meme and ended with a pink slip. Well, a lot of pink slips. If you’ve been following the news lately, you know the Department of Government Efficiency—better known as DOGE—hasn't exactly been shy about its "chainsaw" approach to the federal bureaucracy. Lead by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the group hit the ground running in 2025 with a single, aggressive mission: shrink the state.
But how many people has DOGE fired so far?
Getting a straight answer is harder than you'd think. The government isn't always the fastest at reporting its own demise, and the line between "fired," "laid off," and "encouraged to leave" is thinner than a tax-exempt status. Honestly, the numbers are pretty staggering when you look at the total reduction in the federal workforce over the last twelve months.
The Raw Data: Making Sense of the 2025 Workforce Purge
By the time we hit January 2026, the data started to paint a very clear, very lean picture. According to reports from the Partnership for Public Service and analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, the total reduction in the federal workforce has hovered around 212,000 to 271,000 people.
That is not a small number. To put it in perspective, that’s about 9% to 10% of the entire federal civilian workforce gone in less than a year.
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Now, if you ask DOGE, they’ll tell you they saved the taxpayer billions. If you ask the unions, they’ll tell you they’ve gutted essential services. But the reality of how these people left is the most interesting part. Not everyone was "fired" in the traditional sense of a boss screaming in an office. A huge chunk of these departures—roughly 154,000 people—actually took voluntary buyout offers.
Basically, the government offered them a "golden handshake" to walk away before the actual axe fell. It worked.
Where the Cuts Hit Hardest
It wasn't a uniform trim across the board. Some agencies looked like they went through a blender while others were barely touched.
- The Department of Defense: This was the biggest hit in terms of sheer volume. Over 61,000 employees were cut, specifically targeting "non-combat" roles and the Defense Logistics Agency.
- Department of Veterans Affairs (VA): This one caused the most political heat. About 35,000 jobs were slashed in December 2025 alone, mostly in administrative and healthcare support roles.
- The "Science" Agencies: NASA lost nearly 4,900 people, while the Department of the Interior saw a massive drop of 9,700 staff members.
- The IRS: Despite the controversy, DOGE pushed for access to the Internal Revenue Service early on, leading to significant turnover as the agency's expansion plans from previous years were effectively deleted.
Why the "Fired" Count is So Controversial
You have to understand the terminology here. If you search for exactly "how many people has DOGE fired so far," you’ll see the administration claiming only about 24,000 to 30,000 were "involuntarily terminated" or fired for cause.
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Why the discrepancy?
It’s all about the optics. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under the new administration has been very vocal about the fact that 92% of the departures were "voluntary." But if you talk to a supervisor at the USDA—where 15,000 people left—the story is a bit different. Many employees felt they were "resigning under duress." They were told that if they didn't take the buyout, they’d be fired anyway without the benefits.
So, did DOGE fire them? Technically, no. Functionally? Yeah, pretty much.
The Real-World Impact in DC and Beyond
This isn't just a "beltway" problem. The ripple effects have been felt everywhere, but Northern Virginia and Maryland took the brunt of it. In Virginia alone, federal job losses in 2025 wiped out six years of employment growth in just eleven months. That’s roughly 23,500 civilian federal jobs evaporated from one state.
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Economic experts, like Bob McNab from Old Dominion University, point out that federal employees usually earn about 1.6 times more than the average private-sector worker. When 200,000 of those salaries disappear, the local grocery stores, car dealerships, and real estate markets feel it almost immediately.
What’s Next for DOGE and the Federal Workforce?
As we move deeper into 2026, the "low-hanging fruit" is mostly gone. The massive buyouts are over, and the administration is now looking at more structural changes. Leaked emails from late 2025 suggest that another 10,000 positions are on the chopping block for the coming months, specifically targeting agencies like FEMA and the Department of Education.
However, there is significant pushback. The courts have already stepped in to reverse some of the more "arbitrary" firings, and Congress has shown signs of rejecting the more extreme budget cuts that would lead to further layoffs.
If you are a federal employee or a contractor, the best move right now is to keep your resume updated and stay tuned to the Federal Harms Tracker or official OPM bulletins. The era of "safe" government jobs seems to have hit a very permanent-feeling pause.
Actionable Takeaways for 2026
- Monitor the Buyouts: If you're still in the system, watch for the "April Window." Some agencies are expected to offer a second round of voluntary incentives to meet 2026 budget targets.
- Private Sector Transition: With nearly 300,000 people entering the job market, competition for "gov-adjacent" roles in the private sector is at an all-time high. Specialized skills in cybersecurity or logistics are still in demand, but general administrative roles are saturated.
- Legal Protections: If you are facing an "involuntary" separation, document everything. A judge recently ordered the government to clarify that many of the 2025 layoffs were not "for cause," which is vital for your future employment record.
DOGE has definitely succeeded in making the government smaller. Whether it made it "efficient" is a question we'll be arguing about for the next decade.