WASHINGTON – Layoffs are underway at multiple federal departments, according to union sources and termination notices reviewed by USA TODAY, as President Donald Trump and top White House official Elon Musk carry out plans to purge the federal workforce.
All of the employees let go appeared to be recently hired probationary workers. Affected agencies include the Department of Education, Small Business Administration and the Energy Department, sources said.
More than 60 probationary employees at the Department of Education received termination notices Wednesday night spanning multiple areas within the department, including the offices of general counsel, special education and rehabilitation services, and federal student aid. Education Department employees working on a probationary basis were hired within the past year.
“The agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest,” one of Wednesday’s termination notices to a federal student aid employee reads.
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Dozens of probationary employees at the Small Business Administration received similar notices last Friday. On Monday, they were told it was a mistake before receiving notices en mass on Tuesday, a source said. The SBA employees were working on probationary periods of either either one or two years.
“During this probationary or trial period, it has been determined that your continued employment does not promote the efficiency of the service because you have failed to demonstrate fitness for continued federal employment,” a Feb. 11 termination email sent to at least 45 Small Business Administration employee reads.
A union source said dozens of employees at the Energy Department have been terminated. It was not immediately clear whether these are also probationary employees.
About 100 probationary employees received termination letters on Wednesday at the General Services Administration, which oversees the federal real estate, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the firings.
The firings came after Trump ‒ joined by Musk in the Oval Office ‒ signed an executive order Tuesday that seeks to significantly reduce the size of the government by instructing heads of federal departments and agencies to undertake plans for “large-scale reductions in force.”
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Departments were ordered to implement a “workforce optimization initiative” created by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been moving rapidly from one department to another to slash spending and gut programs.
On his first day in office, Trump issued a government-wide freeze on any hiring new federal employees.
An Office of Personnel Management spokesperson confirmed the reductions in a statement, calling an employee’s probationary period “a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment.”
“Agencies are taking independent action in light of the recent hiring freeze and in support of the President’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to better serve the American people at the highest possible standard,” the OPM spokesperson said.
Musk and his DOGE team have already moved to effectively shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while Trump has said he wants to eliminate the Education Department next.
“I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “Look, the Department of Education is a big con job.”
In a related push to cut the federal workforce, the Trump administration offered eight months of pay and benefits to federal workers in exchange for their immediate resignations. About 75,000 workers accepted the offer, which expired Wednesday night, representing about 3.3% of the nation’s 2.3 million federal workers. That’s below the White House’s projections of 5% to 10% of the workforce who were expected to accept the buyouts.
Nonetheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration is pleased by the results.
“Seventy-five thousand people accepted the buyout program,” Leavitt said. “That’s going to save millions of dollars for the American taxpayers, and that’s exactly what we wanted.”
Contributing: Reuters.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
