US government faces "brain drain": 154,000 federal employees quit their jobs in the last week

From September 23 to September 30, 2025, 154,000 civil servants left federal government agencies in the United States. This is the largest outflow of personnel in almost 80 years. This is reported by UNN with reference to Reuters.

Details

Official processing starts on September 30 for those employees who took advantage of the deferred resignation program, which allowed them to remain on staff until the end of the month. Compensation payments, however, still remain a cornerstone of President Donald Trump's aspirations to reduce the size of the federal workforce while adhering to legislation and avoiding exorbitant budget expenditures on compensation.

No less acute is the question of the future fate of those who, according to the Office of Personnel Management, left their agencies several months ago and are effectively on paid leave.

The loss of talented and experienced employees, experts, and their knowledge is already making it difficult for many federal agencies to perform their work and serve the US public.

Negative impacts have already been recorded in areas such as weather forecasting, food safety, healthcare, and space projects.

Almost 4,000 NASA employees took advantage of compensation offers made by the Trump administration in January and April. Among them are engineers and aerospace specialists. Because of this, research and innovation programs on the Moon and Mars are under enormous threat. This was stated by Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the head of the union representing 8,000 NASA employees.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in March that the department would cut 10,000 employees.

At the National Weather Service, almost 200 people left their positions, leading to the loss of technical personnel who maintain forecasting equipment and many experienced meteorologists.

In total, the combination of compensation with other incentives for employees will lead to a reduction of 300,000 federal employees by the end of this year, which will mean a 12.5% reduction in the civil service workforce from January 1, 2026. But at the same time, it will provide budget savings of $28 billion. Also, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal workforce accounts for less than 1.5% of all employed in the payroll fund.

Recall

The record holder for government employment reduction after World War II is the 42nd Democratic president, Bill Clinton. During his eight years in office (two terms), Clinton oversaw a reduction of the federal workforce by more than 430,000 people, or about 20%. At the same time, during Clinton's presidential term, more than 22 million jobs were created in the private sector on the wave of the technological boom, thanks to which the reduction of the federal workforce did not leave a noticeable mark on the overall labor market.

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