Firings at US agency foreshadow second wave of mass government layoffs

The US government's human resources agency is rushing to shut down and drastically shrink entire departments in what sources familiar with the actions say will serve as a template for a second wave of mass layoffs in the federal bureaucracy.

The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the personal information of millions of past and current government workers, has eliminated its entire 40-strong procurement team and gutted a group overseeing the handling of sensitive employee data within the agency, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The sources, who asked to speak anonymously out of fear of reprisals, said the process to begin targeting career civil servants at OPM will serve as a model for the next phase of new and more sweeping layoffs across government agencies.

A spokesperson for OPM did not respond to a request for comment.

Eliminating career employees, who make up the vast majority of the 2.3 million-strong civilian government workforce, is viewed as key to the next phase of the downsizing effort by tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, the sources said.

Layoffs across the government by DOGE to date have largely been implemented through voluntary resignation and the firing of probationary employees, who do not enjoy the same job protections as career staff. That has accounted for the elimination of about 95,000 jobs. The next phase could see the targeting of hundreds of thousands more.

The latest firings at OPM are being carried out by so-called reductions in force and are targeting mostly career workers. Roughly 50 OPM employees were let go via this process in the last 10 days, one of the two sources said.

Reductions in force, or RIFs, are the primary formal process by which agencies generally lay off staff during reorganizations. They usually involve a complicated and lengthy process that can last from months to a year in which agencies have to justify why they are targeting career employees, who are also given a notice period in which they can appeal the decision.

Separately, a source inside the General Services Administration, in charge of government real estate, received an email from a superior on Monday announcing that reductions in force will begin at that agency this week. Reuters has seen a copy of the email.

But OPM, which is acting as the command center for efforts by President Donald Trump and Musk to shrink the civil service, is moving unusually quickly to take out career employees with ostensibly strong protections earned over years or decades on the job, the two sources familiar with the matter said.

One of the sources said the timeline was being "rushed" to show other agencies what could be done.

Another source familiar with the firings inside OPM said that new managers had told some staff that would be the model moving forward.

At OPM some of the career workers being laid off under the RIF process were almost immediately locked out of the agency's computer system and sent home on paid administrative leave for 60 days, one of the three sources told Reuters.

Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order telling agencies to come up with new plans to fire federal workers. The order said agencies can only hire one new employee for every four that leave.

Trump has tasked Musk with drastically cutting the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy. Both men argue it is bloated and inefficient and costs US taxpayers, who mostly fund it, too much of their hard-earned wages.

In addition to the procurement team and the group focused on protecting employee data - which has been halved to eight employees - OPM has also eliminated a communications team of about 20 people and a diversity, equity and inclusion team of seven via the RIF process, one source said.