As the government shutdown drags on, federal layoffs have started — and thousands of employees’ jobs are on the chopping block.
Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought posted on X around noon Eastern time on Friday, “The RIFs have begun.”
It follows a pre-shutdown memo from The Office of Management and Budget directing federal agencies to “consider” terminations for employees working in programs that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”
The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees — a large labor union representing federal workers — filed suit against the government over the planned layoffs on September 30. On October 4, the union requested a temporary restraining order, to prevent the layoffs from immediately taking effect.
In response to that motion, on October 10, the Office of Management and Budget outlined exactly how many employees were identified for layoffs and which departments would face cuts.
The Office of Management and Budget filing, reviewed by Business Insider, indicates that between 4,132 and 4,232 federal workers are expected to be affected.
The departments, according to the filing, are as follows:
- 315 employees from the Department of Commerce
- 466 from the Department of Education
- 187 from the Department of Energy
- Between 1,100 and 1,200 from the Department of Health and Human Services
- 442 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development
- 176 from the Department of Homeland Security
- 1,446 from the Department of the Treasury
Business Insider has spoken with two dozen employees across agencies since the shutdown began. Some have been furloughed, while others remain at their post without pay. Most have been bracing themselves for bad news.
What we know about which federal employees are getting laid off
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Education confirmed to Business Insider that employees will be affected. The RIFs are “as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown,” HHS said. All roles being cut “were designated non-essential by their respective divisions.”
The agency added that “HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
The Department of Homeland Security also said RIFs will occur within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “During the last administration, CISA was focused on censorship, branding, and electioneering. This is part of getting CISA back on mission,” the department said.
In its suit, the American Federation of Government Employees said the staff cuts are “unlawfully laying off employees during the shutdown, and improperly using the shutdown as the basis for the layoffs.”
Federal workers had been bracing for firings and are worried about their finances
For his part, Mark Cochran is exhausted. He’s a longtime National Park Service employee at Pennsylvania’s Gettysburg Military Park and Northeastern regional union president. Cochran spent the end of September storing equipment, closing the park’s cemetery, and throwing away trash in preparation for a shutdown. On October 1, he received a notice that his role is furloughed — and he has been waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“We’ve been doing more with less for decades,” Cochran told Business Insider last week, “and if you cut our staffing even more, then things aren’t going to get done.”
Workers at agencies like the Internal Revenue Service, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Centers for Disease Control, National Weather Service, and Department of Defense told reporters that they expect more staff cuts. Many are worried about their paychecks in the interim.
Jill Hornick, a 30-year veteran at the Social Security Administration and a leader in the Chicago-area union, said that she and colleagues are stressed about their job security and financial future, and that it’s not just about them.
“There are ripple effects,” she said. “Because now all the major downtown areas — Chicago, LA, DC, New York — will not have federal employees spending money because they don’t have money to spend. It hurts all these mom and pop businesses, dry cleaners, and restaurants. The damage to the economy is just inexcusable.”
About 658,000 workers across agencies and the military began receiving partial paychecks on October 10 for days worked immediately prior to the shutdown, and some will see smaller amounts or miss checks altogether until the government reopens. Other employees are anxious that this partial paycheck will be their last.
A Trump administration memo seen by Business Insider also says that the hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers may not receive back pay unless Congress explicitly authorizes it when reopening the government — despite a 2019 law that is widely understood to guarantee back pay to employees following a shutdown. And, with Democrats and Republicans in a stalemate over spending and healthcare plans, it’s unclear when the shutdown will end.
This isn’t the first wave of federal staff cuts this year. The Department of Government Efficiency carried out mass firings and budget cuts in the spring, which many federal workers feel disrupted agency functions and led to untenable workloads.
Since Trump took office in January, over 200,000 federal workers have lost their jobs and thousands more have left their government posts through retirement, buyouts, quits, and deferred resignations. A July 8 Supreme Court ruling gave the Trump administration a green light to continue mass firings.
Americans could experience delays at Social Security, the post office, airports, national parks, and more if the federal firings and the shutdown continue.
Jack Newsham, Brent Griffiths, and Ana Altchek contributed reporting.
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