President-elect Donald Trump has has pledged to take a chainsaw to the vast federal bureaucracy when he returns to the White House in January, potentially bringing drastic changes to how the government operates, as well as the millions of Americans across the country who help operate it.
Trump announced plans to appoint Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a Department of Government Efficiency aimed at cutting bureaucracy and red tape. In a post to Truth Social, Trump wrote that the agency would "slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."
This would have wide-reaching implications for millions of federal workers across the country, many of whom are already feeling anxiety about their job security when Trump takes office. The federal government employed an estimated three million workers as of October, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Musk and Ramaswamy outlined some of their plans to overhaul the federal government, writing that they would consider "large-scale firings," the relocation of federal agencies outside of Washington, D.C. and the end of remote work for federal workers.
"The number of federal employees to cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified: Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited," the opinion piece reads.
They added that those employees who would be fired "deserve to be treated with respect" and that the agency "help support their transition into the private sector. The president can use existing laws to give them incentives for early retirement and to make voluntary severance payments to facilitate a graceful exit."
Newsweek reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team for comment via email.
Most civil workers for the federal government live and work in and around the capital, according to data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management included in a Congressional Research Services report. At the end of February 2024, there were about 162,000 federal employees in Washington, D.C., nearly 143,000 in Maryland and 144,000 in Virginia, according to the report.
The report into state-by-state figures only included civilian federal employees, meaning it did not account for federal law enforcement agencies, as well as other more "sensitive" operations. It also did not account for postal service workers and most legislative and judicial branch employees.
If Trump succeeds in his plans to overhaul the federal government, those numbers could drop. In March 2023, he pledged to continue efforts "to move parts of the federal bureaucracy outside of the Washington Swamp.
"Up to 100,000 government positions could be moved out of Washington," his campaign wrote in a press statement.
In 2019, during Trump's first tenure in the White House, his administration moved the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to Grand Junction, Colorado. About 87 percent of the agency quit instead of moving, The Washington Post reported at the time. The Biden administration ended up moving BLM headquarters back to D.C., but it still maintains a presence in western Colorado.
Plans like this aimed at restructuring the bureaucracy will likely be met with pushback from federal employees, and indeed already have. Reuters reported that unions are preparing public campaigns and hiring lawyers to prevent mass layoffs. Reports suggest plans are already creating unease among federal workers who are concerned about whether their jobs may be cut by the incoming administration.
Nicole Cantello, a union president representing workers of the Environmental Protection Agency, told NPR that workers are "apprehensive and fearful" as Trump's second term in office approaches.
Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told D.C.-based news station WTOP that members of Congress representing areas near D.C. are seeing "tremendous concern in all of our districts about what looks like a full-fledged assault coming on the professional civil service."
Which Federal Agencies Employee the Most People?
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are the two largest federal agencies by headcount.
The VA employs more than 468,000 people, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. This includes bureaucrats in D.C., but also healthcare workers and others who administer benefits to veterans across the country. Trump critics are raising concerns that veteran healthcare could be among the programs cut by the Department of Government Efficiency.
USPS, meanwhile, employs more than 525,000 people. More than 750,000 work for the Department of Defense, which includes the DOD's civilian workforce but not active military.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) counts more than 116,000 staff. The DOJ has become a target of Trump's criticism after he was charged in two criminal cases, one focusing on his actions surrounding the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol and another into whether he improperly stored classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House.
The classified documents case was tossed out by Judge Aileen Cannon, and the DOJ is expected to close the Jan. 6 case before Trump returns to the Oval Office next year. Trump maintains his innocence and has accused the DOJ of participating in a "witch hunt."
He is seeking to staff the DOJ with his personal lawyers and other close allies, though his pick for attorney general, former Representative Matt Gaetz, on Thursday withdrew his bid to lead the department.
Federal Government vs. Private Sector
Walmart is the private employer with the highest number of workers, with about 2.1 million people on its payroll. It is followed by Amazon, with about 1.5 million employees and FedEx, with about 529,000 U.S. employees.
The number of federal employees has waxed and waned through the years, steadily growing since the summer of 2022. The workforce peaked in 1990, when there were more than 3.4 million federal employees, according to the St. Louis Fed.
Which Federal Workers Are Paid the Most?
Many federal agencies have average salaries in the six figures, according to the personnel office. But the Securities and Exchange Commission, tasked with regulating the financial industry, has the highest average salary at $213,844. It employees just under 5,000 people.
The Federal Reserve, with nearly 1,700 employees, ranks second with an average salary of $184,268. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is third, with about 1,500 employees who make an average of $165,526.
Department of Agriculture employees are the lowest paid of major federal agencies. The agency has more than 92,000 employees who make an average of $86,425 per year.
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