Federal employment dropped to 2,686,000 in January 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number has not appeared in federal labor data since Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House.
The Bureau’s “All Employees, Federal” series confirms it. We have not seen staffing levels this low since May 1966.
This is insane…
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) February 11, 2026
The number of federal government employees is now at it’s lowest level in 50+ years.
Dropped off a cliff after Trump was elected. pic.twitter.com/zZu2jzUC8S
For a long time, the working assumption in Washington was that the federal government only grows. Agencies expand. Programs multiply. Headcount inches upward year after year. Rarely does it move the other way.
This time, it did.
The change took shape during President Donald Trump’s second term, when he signed an executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Publicly associated with Elon Musk, the effort focused on trimming bureaucracy, cutting back administrative layers, and consolidating duplicative functions across federal agencies.
According to Office of Personnel Management data summarized in public reporting, more than 322,000 federal employees left the government workforce during the first year after Trump returned to office.
“During which 322,049 federal government employees have exited the workforce. It is the largest reduction of the federal workforce in the past two decades, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management.”
Those exits came in different forms. Roughly 149,500 resigned. More than 105,000 retired. Around 10,500 were laid off. Even after new hires were added, overall staffing declined noticeably.
And it was not limited to a single agency tucked away from public view.
Defense and Veterans Affairs, two of the largest federal employers, saw tens of thousands depart. Health and Human Services announced plans to reduce its workforce from 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000. USAID’s staffing drop was particularly steep, falling from 4,800 employees to just 378. The Department of Education trimmed more than 1,700 positions, landing at roughly 2,500 employees in early 2025.
“USAID was the agency with the highest overall percentage decrease, seeing a reduction of its workforce by 92%… The agency went from 4,800 employees in 2024 to now having 378 employees.”
(USAID has since been folded into the State Department.)
Look at any one of those reductions in isolation, and it may not feel historic. A few here. A few dozen there.
But federal staffing does not shrink in a single dramatic sweep. It changes through attrition, hiring pauses, buyouts, reorganizations, and the quiet removal of programs that no longer receive funding. Those decisions do not always make headlines. They accumulate.
Eventually, the bigger number reflects it.
DOGE has also posted contract terminations and projected savings through its official account.
Over the last 3 days, agencies terminated and descoped 55 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $1.6B and savings of $542M, including a $47M State Dept. program support contract for “Africa / Djibouti, Somalia armored personnel carriers and Somalia National Army crew”, a $19.5M HHS IT Services contract for “support for National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in designing, creating, updating, maintaining, and archiving online communications, including websites, webpages, applications that directly support the internet and intranet presence, mobile tools, and social media tools”, and a $151k DoW education services contract for “Director’s Development Program in Leadership - Partnership course to be held at Northwestern University”.
Contracts Update!
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 3, 2026
Over the last 3 days, agencies terminated and descoped 55 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $1.6B and savings of $542M, including a $47M State Dept. program support contract for “Africa / Djibouti, Somalia armored personnel carriers and Somalia… pic.twitter.com/JgF8YR6ht4
The update lists canceled agreements and cost reductions. No one holds a press conference for a terminated consulting contract. There is no ceremony when a hiring line goes unfilled. Yet many federal contracts support administrative services, outside consultants, and vendor-backed operations tied directly to agency staffing.
When those contracts end, the work attached to them often shrinks as well.
DOGE has continued releasing similar updates.
Over the last 9 days, agencies terminated and descoped 78 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $1.9B and savings of $335M, including an $616k HHS IT services contract for “social media monitoring platform subscription”, an $191k USAGM broadcasting contract for “broadcast operations and maintenance in Ethiopia, Africa”, and a $4.3M IRS IT services contract for “Inflation Reduction Act transformation project management support”.
Contracts Update!
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) November 23, 2025
Over the last 9 days, agencies terminated and descoped 78 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $1.9B and savings of $335M, including an $616k HHS IT services contract for “social media monitoring platform subscription”, an $191k USAGM broadcasting… pic.twitter.com/83ldxUZ1NY
Contract consolidation limits outside support. Program cuts reduce administrative workload. Hiring freezes prevent backfilling open positions. None of it looks dramatic on its own. Over time, it changes the scale of operations.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics now shows the result. Federal employment stands at 2,686,000, the lowest level in nearly sixty years.
That does not mean Washington suddenly became small. Federal spending remains substantial. Entitlement programs, procurement, and debt service still dominate the budget. Payroll is only one piece of a much larger machine.
READ MORE: Trump Administration Wins Temporary Reprieve With 4th Circuit Stay of USAID/DOGE Injunction
Déjà vu All Over Again: ANOTHER Federal Judge Tries to Thwart Trump Agenda, Goes to Bat for USAID
Still, the size of the federal workforce matters. It reflects how many people the government directly employs to regulate, administer, enforce, and manage its reach.
For decades, small government conservatives argued that the federal bureaucracy had grown beyond its proper bounds. Many insisted it would never meaningfully contract.
Now the payroll sits at a level last seen in the mid-1960s.
Not every administration leaves behind a measurable shift in federal employment data. This one will.
Shrinking the federal workforce was once treated as theoretical.
It is now a line item in the labor data.
Editor’s Note: President Trump’s effort to shrink Washington’s bloated bureaucracy is already producing measurable results. The federal workforce is now at its lowest level since 1966.
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