DOGE Fired 260,000 Federal Workers, Rehired 25,000 as Essential, and Did Not Reduce the Deficit

260,000 People Lost Their Jobs. The Deficit Grew.

One year after the Department of Government Efficiency began mass layoffs across the federal workforce, the results are in. More than 260,000 workers left federal service through firings, reductions in force, early retirement, and deferred resignations. Approximately 25,000 were rehired after agencies discovered they could not function without them. Courts ordered reinstatements at 18 agencies covering more than 24,000 additional workers.

Federal spending increased by approximately $376 billion, about 6 percent, through August 2025 compared to the prior year. A DOGE staffer testified that DOGE “did not reduce the federal deficit.”

The stated purpose failed. The human cost did not.

The Scorecard

DOGE workforce actions, one year in

Metric	Figure
Workers who left federal service	260,000+
Workers rehired as essential	~25,000
Court-ordered reinstatements	24,000+ at 18 agencies
HHS employees laid off	~10,000
NIOSH employees laid off	~900 (nearly all staff)
SSA planned layoffs	7,000
SSA benefit processing slowdown	25%
Federal spending change (through Aug 2025)	+$376 billion (+6%)
Deficit reduction achieved	None

Named Consequences

The CDC lead poisoning team. The entire Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch was eliminated. When Milwaukee requested specialists to help with a lead exposure crisis affecting children, the CDC had no one to send. The entire team was later rehired.

The FDA food safety lab. More than a dozen scientists at an Illinois food safety lab were fired and then rehired after the FDA realized it could not maintain food inspection capacity.

The USDA bird flu response. The Department of Agriculture halted plans to lay off 25 percent of staff at 58 facilities responsible for responding to avian influenza outbreaks, after recognizing the public health risk.

Social Security claimants. After DOGE installed anti-fraud checks for phone claims at SSA, benefit processing slowed by 25 percent. The acting administrator planned to cut 7,000 total employees from an agency that serves 70 million Americans.

The Rehiring Chaos

RFK Jr. acknowledged that 20 percent of HHS layoffs were mistakes. CNN reported in June 2025 that the administration was scrambling to rehire key workers. By September 2025, NBC News confirmed hundreds of employees were brought back.

The FedTools analysis calls it “the boomerang effect.” Workers were fired without assessment of whether their roles were needed. When services broke, agencies rushed to bring people back, often at higher cost due to contractor replacements in the interim.

“A year after Trump’s DOGE cuts, workers whose lives were upended ask what was saved.”

— PBS NewsHour, March 2026

Privacy Violations

Fired workers alleged that HHS and DOGE violated federal privacy law during the layoff process, mishandling personnel records. The complaint describes DOGE operatives accessing employee data without authorization and sharing performance records outside established channels.

What This Fight Connects To

DOGE’s workforce destruction connects to the Federal Agencies and Public Workers hub. The pattern is consistent: fire first, assess later, rehire quietly, claim savings that do not exist. Every agency cut described here affected services that Americans depend on daily.

What You Can Do

Sign the petition at Resist Bot demanding accountability for DOGE’s workforce actions and restoration of gutted agency capacity.
Write your representatives and ask them to support legislation requiring impact assessments before federal reductions in force.
Track your agency. If you depend on SSA, FDA, CDC, or USDA services, document delays and report them to your congressional office.
Support federal worker unions fighting wrongful terminations in court. The 18-agency reinstatement orders came from union-backed litigation.