Sweeping cuts hit recent federal hires as Trump administration slashes workforce

Federal workers have begun receiving layoff notices as the Trump administration moves ahead with plans to drastically downsize the government.

While the full scale of layoffs isn’t yet clear, the first round of cuts appeared to target employees who were recently hired and still on probationary status, according to multiple federal officials and staffers who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak to the press and feared retaliation from the Trump administration.

The firings are affecting a wide swath of federal workers, and include employees responsible for education, small business grants, and the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.

Probationary periods vary by federal agency but typically last one or two years. According to government data, around 220,000 federal employees had less than one year of service in March 2024, the most recent time period available. Another 288,000 had between one and two years of service at that time.

President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday directing federal agencies to start preparing to, quote, “initiate large-scale reductions in force.” Trump and his advisor Elon Musk have said they want to cut what they say is excessive government spending.

Compensation for federal employees amounted to around 3 percent of the federal budget in the 2024 fiscal year, according to government data.

The Department of Energy began firing its probationary employees on Thursday, according to two officials at the agency who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The employees, who have worked for less than two years in the federal government, were being let go without any notice or severance. Although a formal letter was being prepared, some employees were being fired verbally.

Mass terminations of probationary workers also swept through the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the energy department that oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons.

According to an NNSA employee, roughly 300 of the agency’s 1,800 staff had been fired after the agency was denied a national security exemption. The small organization is responsible for maintaining and upgrading America’s arsenal of nuclear weapons, combatting nuclear terrorism, and preventing proliferation around the world.

According to one energy department official, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had suggested the agency use a template that cited “performance reasons” as the cause of the firings. The official said the energy department letter had removed that phrasing because many of the employees had performed well during their probationary period. The energy department’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Probationary employees at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management were also terminated on Thursday, according to an official with the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 civil servants, including workers at OPM, the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration, and other federal agencies. The union official spoke with NPR anonymously in order to share internal discussions.

Over a Microsoft Teams call with about 100 people, OPM staffers were told the reason for their dismissal was that they didn’t take the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation offer, the union official said. That offer gave two million civilian federal employees the option to resign while retaining pay and benefits through the end of September, or remain in their positions with the caveat that their jobs would not be not guaranteed.

The affected OPM employees were given until 3 p.m. ET Thursday to leave the building, the union official said. AFGE officials were not given access to the building.

“This administration has abused the probationary period to conduct a politically driven mass firing spree, targeting employees not because of performance, but because they were hired before Trump took office,” AFGE president Everett Kelley said in a statement late Thursday.

“Agencies have spent years recruiting and developing the next generation of public servants. By firing them en masse, this administration is throwing away the very talent that agencies need to function effectively in the years ahead,” Kelley said.

Probationary staff at the Department of Education began receiving written notifications on Wednesday night that they were being terminated effective immediately, according to four employees who shared their notices with NPR on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

At least 60 probationary staffers across the education department received termination notices, according to the union official.

“This is just devastating to me,” one department staffer told NPR on the condition their name not be used for fear of retribution. “When I took my oath, that was the proudest moment of my career.”

In response to a request from NPR to confirm the firings, a spokesperson said the agency does not comment on personnel matters.

At the General Services Administration, many probationary employees were called into meetings on Wednesday afternoon and told they would be let go, according to three GSA employees who spoke to NPR. Some were told they had a final chance to take the government’s deferred resignation offer, which was officially closed hours later. As of Thursday, many affected GSA workers still had not received formal termination notices in writing, the GSA sources said.

At some agencies, the notification process has been confusing and chaotic.

At the Small Business Administration, probationary staff received emailed termination notices last Friday, only to be told in another email on Monday that that was an error, according to the union official. Then, on Tuesday, the SBA staffers got another termination notice. The union official said dozens of SBA probationary employees were let go.

Termination letters emailed to probationary employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday appeared to have been the result of a failed mail merge, according to two terminated employees who got the letters.

The resulting notices were missing personal details, reading: “MEMORANDUM FOR [EmployeeFirstName] [EmployeeLastName], [Job Title], [Division]”.

CFPB’s union has identified approximately 73 “bargaining-unit” employees in their probationary period who were terminated, according to Jasmine Hardy, the executive vice president for NTEU Chapter 335.

NPR’s Stephen Fowler, Jonaki Mehta and Laurel Wamsley contributed to this report.