USDA Lost 18 Percent of Workforce in First Six Months of Trump Admin, OIG Reports
A published report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals that, in the first six months of 2025, the agency lost nearly 20 percent of its workforce (notably including USDA OIG head Phyllis Fong, who was fired in January).
The report, published in December, only provides information through June 2025. Official figures about USDA employee attrition in the last half of the year remain undisclosed.
According to the report, as of January 11, 2025, USDA had 110,384 employees. By June 14, a total of 20,306 employees left the agency, representing approximately 18 percent of the workforce. Of these employees, 15,114 (74 percent of attrition) left under the Deferred Resignation Program, a Trump Administration initiative in early 2025 to reduce the federal workforce by incentivizing voluntary resignation. Another 1,996 otherwise resigned, 1,636 employees were terminated, and 1,280 retired.
Each agency experienced attrition during the period, with workforce reductions ranging from 7–67 percent. For example, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) lost 9 percent of its staffers, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) lost 23 percent, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) lost 25 percent, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) lost 35 percent.
It is well known that USDA and other federal agencies responsible for food safety and public health, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have been affected by major reductions in force since the start of the second Trump Administration. However, the total number of staffers that have been dismissed or left—and which staffers—remains unclear.
The latest report from USDA’s OIG paints an incomplete picture of the situation, especially since it does not account for any employee attrition that has occurred since USDA’s planned reorganization was announced in July 2025. Part of this plan includes the mandatory relocation of USDA staff from the greater Washington D.C. area to offices across the U.S., which will most likely exacerbate the agency’s loss of staff. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has shared her expectation that as many as 50 percent of USDA’s Washington D.C.-area staff could resign rather than relocate.
The report also does not include any layoffs resulting from the October government shutdown, during which President Trump ordered the dismissal of furloughed federal employees.
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