WASHINGTON — More than 150,000 federal employees are leaving their jobs this week in the largest single-year departure of civil servants since World War II, raising alarms about the loss of institutional expertise and capacity in government.
The resignations, which began Tuesday, are the result of a deferred exit program that kept employees on the payroll through September after they accepted buyouts. The program, central to President Donald Trump’s effort to shrink the federal workforce, combined financial incentives with the threat of dismissal for those who declined. Many workers effectively left their posts months ago but remained on the books as part of the program.
Unions and governance experts warn that the exodus is creating a dangerous “brain drain.” Don Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan, said decades of knowledge are walking out the door. “It takes years to develop deep expertise to deliver government programs. Now much of that knowledge is gone,” he said.
The impact is being felt across agencies that touch everyday American life — from weather forecasting to food safety, space exploration to public health. The National Weather Service lost nearly 200 staff, leaving gaps in technical expertise and forecasting capacity. At NASA, nearly 4,000 employees accepted buyouts, a loss union leaders say includes some of the world’s most brilliant engineers and scientists.
The Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service saw 1,200 departures, including specialists in grain safety whose work helped prevent toxins from reaching food supplies. At health agencies, including the CDC and FDA, thousands of positions have been cut. One anonymous employee described struggles in updating the National Youth Tobacco Survey after key staff in tobacco prevention were lost.
While supporters of the cuts, including Trump and former adviser Elon Musk, argue the government had become bloated and inefficient, critics say the reductions have been indiscriminate and risk undermining public safety. The Office of Personnel and Management claims the buyouts will save $28 billion annually, though that figure has not been independently verified.
By the administration’s own projections, roughly 300,000 federal jobs will be shed by the end of this year — a 12.5 per cent decrease since January. Though the departures are unlikely to dent national employment levels, they represent a profound shift in the federal government’s capacity.
Democratic former President Bill Clinton still holds the record for the largest overall reduction in government employment, cutting more than 430,000 positions across eight years. But Clinton presided over a booming economy and rapid job growth, conditions absent today.
For many inside the agencies now reeling from departures, the problem isn’t just fewer workers — it’s the loss of decades of hard-won expertise that may never be replaced.