Does cutting government headcount make it work more effectively?

From firing inspectors-general, to mass layoffs in the Department of Education, the federal workforce is being scaled back.

So far, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of 12 of these terminations, while scores of workers are leaving voluntarily.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows Trump’s federal layoffs, based on data from CNN.

In the table below, we show more than 51,000 federal job cuts as of July 14, 2025:

So far, 34 agencies or sub-agencies have made job cuts either through layoffs or notices of termination.

As a result, Washington D.C. is home to the highest number of layoffs in the country in 2025, with six agencies seeing at least 80% of their workforce eliminated.

Most notably, USAID’s closure resulted in about 10,000 layoffs, with 83% of its programs being shut down.

Meanwhile, the Small Business Administration cut about 42% of its workforce, equal to approximately 2,700 employees.

Even more staggeringly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) cut 86.4% of its staff. 

For perspective, the federal headcount stood at about three million employees in early 2025, with 50% working in the sector for more than 10 years.

Overall, the U.S. ranks 11th out of 80 countries by share of government workers per capita, based on 2023 figures.