During the opening months of the Trump administration, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has cut or threatened to cut the jobs of thousands of federal workers. Previous Urban work showed these cuts will likely affect communities nationwide, especially smaller areas that rely heavily on federal jobs, including those near military installations, federal correctional facilities, and large Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals.
Recent announcements have specified which agencies will experience workforce reductions and to what extent. Although the exact nature of the cuts will affect areas differently, data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) at the agency and metropolitan area level suggest workforce cuts would lead to nationwide agency office closures, increasing unemployment rates, and service reductions.
Which communities will federal agency workforce cuts affect?
The VA is the largest federal agency, with more than 470,000 employees across the country. The VA provides services and benefits to military veterans and their families by offering health care, financial benefits, and support services. Importantly, the VA operates the nation’s largest integrated health care system, which includes general medical care, mental health services, skilled nursing facility care, and long-term care.
Recent reporting suggests DOGE is going to cut at least 80,000 VA workers, 17 percent of the total VA workforce. According to the Veterans Health Administration Medical Facilities dataset, nearly 1,050 VA health care facilities are currently operating in more than 475 different metro areas. These locations largely mirror population density—California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania have the most VA health care facilities.
Reducing the VA workforce by that many employees is equivalent to the seven largest VA offices located in New York City; Tampa Bay; Chicago; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Philadelphia; and Atlanta. But dozens of VA offices operate with just a single employee, helping veterans obtain federal and state benefits. Reducing 17 percent of the VA workforce is equivalent to all the workers in the 746 smallest offices, which range in size from 1 employee to about 1,500 employees. (These location-specific data at the agency level account for about half of all federal civilian workers and do not include people working in security or sensitive areas.)
The VA is not the only agency facing significant workforce reductions: five other large federal agencies—the Departments of the Treasury, Health and Human Services (HHS), Agriculture (USDA), Energy, and the Social Security Administration (SSA)—also face significant workforce reductions. CNN’s current estimates of workers fired from these agencies range from about 1,900 people at HHS (roughly 2 percent of its total staff) to 7,000 people at SSA (more than 12 percent of its staff). Smaller agencies are also facing dramatic reductions: cuts to the Department of Education would eliminate more than half of its total staff.
These proposed cuts would also have nationwide effects. The 6,000 worker layoffs at the Treasury Department are roughly equivalent to four individual offices: the Internal Revenue Service processing centers in Austin, Texas (6,587 employees); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (5,615 employees); Kansas City, Missouri (5,613 employees); and Atlanta, Georgia (5,397 employees). Similarly, the proposed reductions at HHS are similar to offices in Gallup, New Mexico (1,582 employees); Phoenix, Arizona (1,517 employees); New York City (1,262); and Show Low, Arizona (1,244).
Another way to appreciate the size of the reductions is to compare them with employment levels in the smallest offices around the country. Using this method, the proposed reductions are similar to about 90 percent of the Energy and Treasury Departments’ smaller offices. Roughly 75 percent of local HHS and SSA offices would sum to the total number of proposed reductions. The 3,400 job cuts at the USDA are equivalent to about half of its total smaller offices. And because 60 percent of Education Department employees work at the DC office, reducing the workforce by 2,100 people is equivalent to every office in the country plus cutting the DC office workforce by nearly 20 percent.
Workforce cuts would hurt communities nationwide
Although the financial savings from these federal workforce reductions could reduce the federal debt, there will be trade-offs. Cutting the federal civilian workforce will increase unemployment rates and affect services to residents in areas all over the country. However, we won’t know the full effects of these reductions until agencies formalize layoffs and data at the local level become available.
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