Buyouts did thirteen times the cutting that layoffs did
Source. Partnership for Public Service, “The Federal Workforce One Year into the Trump Administration”, tabulating OPM Federal Workforce Data; the remainder is our arithmetic (386,826 − 136,822 − 10,436). January 20, 2025 – January 2026.
Method and data
Method. Separations from the federal civilian workforce by reason, January 20, 2025 to January 2026, and new hires over the same period. The three separation rows partition the 386,826 separations: the 239,568 are all other separations — retirements, resignations, transfers, terminations, deaths and the rest — outside the program and RIFs; new hires are not separations. Reductions in force were 2.7 percent of separations. Four numbers circulate for “the buyout” and they are different things: about 75,000 acceptances in February 2025; 136,822 people who actually left under any buyout window; 386,826 separations for every reason; and a net change of roughly −264,000 after hiring. GAO-26-108583 gives 128,589 buyout and 6,331 RIF separations across 22 CFO Act agencies, January 2025 to January 2026.
| Reason | People |
|---|---|
| All other separations (outside the program and RIFs) | 239,568 |
| Deferred-resignation separations (buyouts) | 136,822 |
| Reduction-in-force separations (layoffs) | 10,436 |
| New hires over the same period | 122,598 |
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Higgins Strategy. “Buyouts did thirteen times the cutting that layoffs did” Exhibit 14, Every Federal Job in the Region (Study VIII). October 12, 2026. https://higginsstrategy.com/charts/viii-ex05-separations/