More than two weeks since President Donald Trump announced major plans to downscale the government, mass firing at multiple U.S. government agencies begun on Feb. 11, union sources and employees familiar with the layoffs told Reuters.
Sources told Reuters termination emails have been sent in the past 48 hours to scores of government workers, mostly to recently hired employees still on probation, including in the Education Department, the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the General Services Administration (GSA).
According to government data, more than 170,000 government workers were hired less than two years ago, with most still on probation.
The layoffs are a result of efforts conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk. The Trump administration tasked DOGE to undertake a massive downsizing of the 2.3 million-strong civilian federal workforce and gave it the ability to shut down entire government agencies.
As Reuters reports, letters forwarded to at least 160 recent hires at the Education Department told them that their continued employment "would not be in the public interest," while about 100 probationary employees received termination letters on Feb. 12 at the GSA, according to two people familiar with the firings.
"The Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment with the Agency," letters sent to at least 45 probationers at the SBA stated.
On Feb. 11, Trump signed an executive order expanding the power of DOGE, ordering U.S. agencies to prepare for mass layoffs and work closely with Musk's team to identify government employees who can be laid off.
"The Trump administration is encouraging agencies to use the probationary period as it was intended: as a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment," a spokesperson at the Office of Personnel Management said, as reported by Reuters.
Despite critiques and multiple efforts to block the motion, Trump continues to defend his decision, saying the federal government is too bloated and that too much money is lost to waste and fraud.
On Feb. 12, Trump scored a major legal victory in his efforts to downsize the government when a federal judge ruled that a buyout offer to government workers could proceed. In late January, he gave federal workers a hard deadline via a government-wide email with the immediate option to participance in a "deferred resignation program" which would give them the ability to decide whether to resign in September or not.
The program expects that up to 10% of federal employees—as many as 200,000—to quit their jobs, senior administration officials told CBS News. They also said only about 6% of federal employees work full-time in office.
"If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason)," an email sent to federal workers stated.
As reported by The Latin Times, about 75,000 workers have signed up for the buyout as of Feb. 13.
Notably, workers who choose to stay despite the buyout offer cannot be given reassurance that their positions or their agencies will be retained. "Should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions," the initiative stated.
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