'Disappointing' DOGE: Federal workforce shrinking by just 1% shows bureaucracy's entrenchment, experts say
Experts call DOGE results 'disappointing' as entrenched government positions prove difficult to eliminate despite Trump administration's efforts
By Greg Norman Fox News
Published July 3, 2025 7:43am EDT
Data indicating the federal workforce shrank by just 1% over the first few months of President Donald Trump’s second term shows a "disappointing effect of DOGE" and the level of bureaucracy’s entrenchment in America, experts told Fox News Digital.
Figures released by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) show that the United States employs 2,289,472 federal workers as of March 31, which is down from 2,313,216 on September 30, 2024. The reduction of more than 23,000 positions "reflects the administration’s early efforts to streamline government and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy," OPM said in a press release.
"That's just through the end of March. So I suspect those numbers will be higher by the end of September this year, which is when a lot of the early retirement packages– and buyouts – go into effect," Alex Nowrasteh, the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies, told Fox News Digital.
"Regardless of what those numbers are, this is not enough people having been terminated. It is not enough shrinkage in the federal workforce. And it is a disappointing effect of DOGE that it wasn't able to increase the size of the decrease in the federal workforce," he added.
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