US Federal Agency Orders Mass Layoffs of Trainee Employees... Further Reductions Also Expected

The Donald Trump administration, which is pushing for a large-scale reduction in federal employees, has ordered nearly all probationary employees in federal agencies to be dismissed, AP News reported on the 13th (local time).

Reuters Yonhap News

According to the report, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ordered each department to terminate probationary workers with less than one year of service, and some agencies were also warned of additional large-scale layoffs.

The exact number of probationary employees working in government agencies is unknown, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. According to the latest data compiled by OPM as of March last year, the number of employees with less than one year of service was around 220,000.

This order goes further than OPM's earlier directive earlier this week, which required agencies to dismiss employees who did not meet high performance standards.

Restructuring of probationary employees reportedly began earlier this week at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Education. In response, Everett Kelly, chairman of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), accused the Trump administration of exploiting the vulnerable status of probationary employees for politically motivated mass layoffs. Kelly claimed that probationary employees in various departments are being dismissed not due to performance but because they were hired under the previous administration.

Earlier, on the 11th, President Trump signed an executive order directing heads of federal agencies to swiftly begin preparations for large-scale layoffs, standing alongside Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is responsible for federal government restructuring. President Trump initially attempted to reduce federal personnel through voluntary retirements, but when the number of applicants fell short of expectations at around 75,000, he announced additional measures.

Currently, the number of federal employees, excluding military personnel and postal workers, is about 2.4 million, with 20% of them located in Washington DC and nearby Maryland and Virginia.