President Donald Trump has overseen the departure of about 1 in every 5 government workers since the start of his second term, a faster and deeper overhaul than under any recent predecessor, a Washington Post analysis found.
By some metrics, Black people — who have historically made up a larger portion of government employees compared with their share of the population — were hit hardest, The Post found.
The cuts were partially offset by new hiring and the reinstatement of some workers. Overall, the portion of the federal workforce that is Black has dropped substantially since Trump’s second administration began, The Post found.
About 85 percent of the departures were resignations or retirements, The Post found, while approximately 32,000 full-time workers were directly fired.
Asked about The Post’s findings, the White House shared a written statement from Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, which serves as the human resources arm of the federal government. Kupor said that “the vast majority of individuals who left government since the beginning of the Administration did so voluntarily.”
The Post obtained and analyzed federal data, surveys and internal Trump administration planning documents to obtain the clearest picture to date of who left, why they departed and how Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce are reshaping American bureaucracy. Here are the major findings.
Federal workforce shrank by historic proportions — offset by hires and rehires
Over Trump’s first 18 months in office, 426,000 full-time, civilian workers left federal service, The Post found by analyzing figures from Federal Workforce Data, collected by OPM. That is equivalent to nearly one-fifth of the workforce, which totaled almost 2.2 million at the start of Trump’s second term.
This rate of departure is significantly higher than the rates seen during the last two administrations. By comparison, about one in seven employees left government over the course of President Joe Biden’s term, while one in eight departed during Trump’s first administration.
The departures concentrated in September 2025, when the administration’s incentive programs for resignation and early retirement took effect. In just that month, nearly 121,000 people left federal service, The Post found.
Accounting for new hires and reinstatements — sometimes forced by judge’s orders in lawsuits filed by dismissed staffers — the federal workforce has shrunk by 255,000 employees between December 2024 and June 2026, a reduction of about 12 percent, The Post found. The last time the workforce was that size was during President Barack Obama’s first term.
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Black federal workers saw the sharpest decline in employment
The Trump administration has stopped publishing data on federal employee demographics, breaking with decades of precedent.
The last snapshot of that data, published in September 2024, showed there were nearly 428,000 Black federal employees, representing about 19 percent of the total workforce. By comparison, Black Americans make up about 12 percent of the nation’s population.
To obtain a proxy estimate of government workforce diversity, and how that has changed since Trump’s downsizing, The Post examined the results of a monthly household survey conducted by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes workers not tracked by OPM, such as Postal Service employees, those in some military and intelligence agencies, as well as contractors who identify as federal workers.
The Post compared survey results for November and December 2025 — the first two months for which data was available after the September 2025 spike in federal departures — against survey results for November and December 2024.
Across that period, the estimated number of Black people working for the government fell by 30 percent, The Post found. By comparison, reported federal employment declined by 4 percent among all other races included in the survey.
Hiring in 2026 has resulted in an uneven demographic shift in the workforce, according to survey estimates analyzed by The Post. Comparing average federal employment during January through September of this year with the same months in 2024, estimated Black employment fell 20 percent, while Hispanic employment rose 6 percent. White employment fell about 4 percent, while Asian employment remained roughly unchanged, rising about 1 percent.
DOGE drove diversity-related cuts to government
Internal planning documents obtained by The Post show the second Trump administration planned to ax hundreds of federal jobs related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs. The plans were developed by the Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting team initially overseen by billionaire Elon Musk, in response to a presidential order meant to rid the government of DEI programs.
A DOGE planning guide listed 225 offices for closure and outlined options for affected employees, including firing, placement on administrative leave or reassignment. The Post identified a sampling of more than 200 workers associated with these offices — whose jobs appear to have had DEI components or responsibilities — before the start of Trump’s second term. Although not a complete accounting of workers in these offices, the Post ascertained their demographics and current statuses by examining organizational charts, professional profiles and social media.
About 52 percent no longer work for the government, while 44 percent remain in federal service. One person died. The Post could not determine the employment status of the others.
More than half of the DOGE firing targets were Black, The Post found, while nearly a third were White, 13 percent were Asian, and 8 percent were Hispanic.
The agency targeted most heavily by DOGE for DEI cuts was the Department of Health and Human Services, followed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department.
‘DEI Watchlist’
The Post also explored the fates of federal workers named on a “DEI Watchlist” website published early last year by a conservative advocacy group, the American Accountability Foundation. That list aims to expose “unelected career staff driving radical Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the federal government,” the site states.
The list identifies 93 federal employees, sharing their full names, salaries, employment histories and pictures of their faces. Two-thirds are Black, The Post found.
As of this month, 50 people identified on the list still work for the government, The Post found, by reviewing LinkedIn profiles, federal employment data and social media. Fifteen have found jobs outside of government, and 28 are unemployed.
Black employees were more likely than others named on the list to have lost their jobs and still be unemployed, The Post found. Twenty-three are out of work today. Among White people named on the list, just two are unemployed, The Post found.
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