426,000 Federal Workers Left in Trump's First 18 Months, Post Analysis Finds; Net Workforce Down 12%

Since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, the federal civilian workforce has shrunk by roughly 12%, and a new Washington Post analysis puts hard numbers on who left and how.

The Post analyzed Federal Workforce Data collected by the Office of Personnel Management. It found 426,000 full-time civilian employees left federal service over Trump's first 18 months. That is nearly one-fifth of the almost 2.2 million people on the payroll when he took office.

How they left

About 85% of the departures were resignations or retirements. Roughly 32,000 full-time workers were directly fired.

The exits were concentrated in a single month. In September 2025, when the administration's resignation and early-retirement incentives took effect, nearly 121,000 people left.

The pace is faster than recent history. About one in seven federal employees left during Joe Biden's term, and one in eight during Trump's first term, according to the Post.

New hiring and reinstatements, some forced by judges in suits filed by dismissed employees, offset part of the loss. Net of those, the workforce fell by 255,000 between December 2024 and June 2026. That leaves it at about 1.94 million, roughly where it stood in Barack Obama's first term.

The administration's account

OPM Director Scott Kupor responded to the findings in a written statement shared by the White House. "The vast majority of individuals who left government since the beginning of the Administration did so voluntarily," he said. He pointed to early retirement and the deferred resignation program, which gave participants eight months of severance.

The numbers back him on the headline split. More than nine in ten departures were not firings.

A separate analysis from the Manhattan Institute, published through the Daily Wire, argues the cuts did what Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency promised in one respect. The authors say DOGE made only modest reductions in contracting and a handful of grant cuts. Its real impact was on headcount, which they put at a drop of more than 270,000 from a peak of over 2.3 million. Their baseline differs from the Post's, so the totals don't match exactly.

The Manhattan Institute authors also point to predictions of collapse. The Brookings Institution asked late last year, "How many people can the federal government lose before it crashes?" The authors say such warnings have gone quiet and that the government is running much as it did before. They call it the fastest decline in federal employment since the end of World War II.

That is their reading. The Post's analysis measured who left, not how well agencies are performing.

Who was hit

The sharpest dispute is over race. As of September 2024, the last time the government published demographic data, about 428,000 Black employees made up roughly 19% of the federal workforce. Black Americans are about 12% of the U.S. population.

The administration has since stopped publishing federal workforce demographics, ending a practice of decades. The Post instead used Census Bureau data collected for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It estimates Black federal employment fell about 30% between late 2024 and late 2025, while employment among other racial groups fell about 4%.

The Post also reports on planning documents it obtained. They show DOGE identified 225 offices for closure, affecting more than 200 employees. More than half of the targeted workers were Black.

The Post examined a website from the conservative American Accountability Foundation as well. It published a "DEI Watchlist" of 93 federal employees accused of promoting diversity initiatives, with names, salaries, employment histories and photos. About two-thirds of those listed were Black.

As of this month, 50 of the 93 still work for the government. Fifteen have found jobs elsewhere and 28 are unemployed. Twenty-three of the unemployed are Black, compared with two white people.

The administration has been open about its campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programs inside government. The Post's reporting ties that campaign to the offices DOGE targeted. The sources do not show that anyone was selected for dismissal by race. The Post reports the disparity, and the planning documents show who sat in the targeted offices.

What can and can't be checked

The 30% figure is an estimate built from survey data, not an agency headcount. With official demographic reporting halted, there is no government series to confirm or refute it.

That gap is the practical issue. Whether the Trump administration will resume publishing workforce demographics has not been announced.

The Post's workforce figures run only through June 2026. Anyone wanting to test either the "it still works" or the "it was gutted" claim has no comparable public performance data across agencies. Kupor's office has not released any.