Don’t be fooled by ‘disappointing’ federal workforce shrinkage, ‘it’s not the full picture

Despite the disclosure of massive waste and fraud in the federal government, the workforce only shrank by 1% in the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term.

According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal workforce totaled 2,289,472 employees as of March 31, a decrease from 2,313,216 on September 30, 2024. This reduction of over 23,000 jobs “demonstrates the administration’s initial steps toward reducing government size and cutting excess bureaucracy,” OPM stated in a press release.

But it’s not nearly enough, according to some economic experts who spoke with Fox News Digital, while others predict “it’s only the beginning.”

“That’s just through the end of March. So I suspect those numbers will be higher by the end of September this year, which is when a lot of the early retirement packages– and buyouts – go into effect,” Alex Nowrasteh, the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies, told Fox News Digital.

“Regardless of what those numbers are, this is not enough people having been terminated. It is not enough shrinkage in the federal workforce. And it is a disappointing effect of DOGE that it wasn’t able to increase the size of the decrease in the federal workforce,” he added.

Is it DOGE’s responsibility to fire fed workers or expose the waste?

“Basically, Elon Musk poured a few teacups of ice water into the ocean to combat its rising temperature,” Peter Morici, an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, told Fox News Digital and predicted the cuts will happen over years, not months.

“It’s very hard to get rid of people unless you get rid of functions. See, he was able to decimate USAID because he took away all their money,” Morici said. “It’s very, very hard to cut down the Commerce Department unless you, for example, don’t want the numbers collected.”

“It takes more than four years,” Morici also said. “Look at the problems they’re having just with Medicare reform, how all the special interests come out. Over the years, the federal bureaucracy is not just in Washington, but it’s been spread throughout the country.”

There is hope for efficiency on the horizon, however.

OPM said “hundreds of thousands more workers” will drop from the government dole in October 2025, Fox reported, while tens of thousands more remain on the payroll while currently going through the termination process.

Monthly hires dropped by nearly 70% after President Trump’s executive order in February that ordered DOGE to coordinate with federal agencies to execute massive staffing cuts.

“The real challenge that President Trump is facing is the fact that the federal government has taken upon itself far too many responsibilities,” David Herbert, with the American Institute for Economic Research, added in a statement to Fox News Digital. “If the President and Congress are serious about streamlining government, they need to move beyond ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ and look to shedding responsibilities that the federal government ought not have in the first place.”

Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell was even more optimistic.

“The American people deserve a government that is lean, efficient, and focused on core priorities,” he said. “This data marks the first measurable step toward President Trump’s vision of a disciplined, accountable federal workforce, and it’s only the beginning.”

Latest posts by Nicole Haas (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.