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GAO: Probationary Federal Workers Fired at 19% Rate. Over 50,000 Lost Jobs.

Resist Now 3 min read

GAO Data Shows Probationary Employees Lost Jobs at a Disproportionate Rate

A new Government Accountability Office report found probationary federal employees separated at an average rate of 19% across the agencies it analyzed in 2025, compared to 15% for all federal employees. Probationary status typically applies to workers in their first one to two years at an agency, making this a workforce of early-career and newly hired employees.

The cumulative number is not abstract. Executive orders and Office of Personnel Management guidance resulted in the separation of more than 50,000 early-career federal workers, according to GAO’s findings. A federal judge later ruled that OPM had unlawfully directed agencies to fire probationary employees en masse.

19%

Separation rate for probationary federal employees in 2025, versus 15% for all federal workers combined. GAO analysis, June 2026.

The cuts did not fall evenly. USDA lost roughly 42% of its probationary workforce in 2025, while its overall employee separation rate was about 30%. The Departments of Agriculture and Interior each saw approximately 30% total staffing declines. The Departments of Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs had the lowest separation levels, each losing about 11% of their employees.

OPM Launched an Early-Career Recruiting Push After Firing the Workers It Just Lost

Three months after the mass separations, OPM announced an initiative to rebuild the pipeline of early-career federal talent. GAO’s Director of Strategic Issues, Dawn Locke, was direct about the contradiction.

“Just three months ago OPM launched an initiative to strengthen the pipeline of early-career talent who are entering the federal workforce. But leading up to that, executive orders and OPM guidance resulted in the separation of more than 50,000 early-career individuals. So it’s a bit difficult to understand the reasoning behind these actions.”

Dawn Locke, Director of Strategic Issues, GAO, June 12, 2026

DOGE, which was disbanded in November 2025, drove much of the early push to shrink the federal civilian workforce. The damage at the Department of Defense alone was substantial: DoD lost nearly 93,000 civilian employees between December 2024 and March 2026, according to the department’s own quarterly workforce reports.

Congress Is Weighing Protections, But the Senate Has Not Yet Acted

The House is now considering the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes amendments that would bar future layoffs of certain DoD employees except for poor performance or misconduct. Workers covered under the proposed protections include DoD school employees, child care workers, health care staff, and public shipyard workers. The House Armed Services Committee passed the bill on June 5, 2026. The Senate has not yet taken up its version.

Whether those protections pass, and whether OPM’s new recruitment initiative actually replaces the workers removed in 2025, remains an open question that GAO has flagged for further attention.

What You Can Do Now

  1. Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to support NDAA 2027 amendments protecting DoD school, child care, health care, and shipyard workers from layoffs except for cause. The Senate has not yet scheduled its NDAA markup, and constituent pressure now shapes what provisions survive.

  2. Call your House representative at (202) 225-3121 and ask them to vote yes on the workforce protection amendments in the House NDAA 2027. The full House is currently considering the bill, and floor votes on amendments can be close.

  3. Contact the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at (202) 224-2627 and ask members to hold oversight hearings on OPM’s probationary firing directive. A federal court already found the directive unlawful, and no public congressional hearing has examined OPM’s legal exposure or the cost of rebuilding the workforce it eliminated.

  4. Ask your representative to request a follow-up GAO study tracking whether OPM’s new early-career recruiting initiative replaces even a fraction of the 50,000-plus workers separated in 2025. You can find your representative’s contact form at house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative.

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