Tariff turmoil could undercut buyout offers to federal workers
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Labour union members holding placards at a protest rally in support of federal workers in Washington on March 24.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – A host of US federal agencies have unveiled fresh buyout offers to slash the federal workforce, renewing the voluntary programme that preceded the first wave of mass firings led by Mr Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
The Treasury Department, Defence Department and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal human-resources agency, are among agencies unveiling a new version of the “deferred resignation programme” in recent days.
The offer gives workers the chance to go on leave with pay until September before formally exiting their roles.
About 75,000 federal workers accepted the first buyout offer.
But some economists questioned how many would take it this time after President Donald Trump sent world markets into a downward spiral and raised fears of a recession with his announcement of sweeping new tariffs last week.
Professor Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, said that with the tariff-induced market uncertainties expected to chill private-sector hiring, federal workers would be less likely to take the offer.
“It will be harder to make the transition to the private sector if we are in the depths of a recession,” he said.
Similar views were expressed by participants in a Reddit group chat that has become a lifeline for federal workers since the Musk-led purge began.
They warned workers that they would be entering a potentially much more unfriendly job market as companies grapple with the fallout from Mr Trump’s announcement.
Doge, the White House, the Treasury and Defence departments and OPM did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
At OPM, acting director Chuck Ezell told staff in an e-mail on April 4 that the new offer “provides employees the option to take paid administrative leave through Sept 30, 2025”.
He described it “as a tool to avoid reductions in force” – the formal term for mass layoffs.
The Department of Labour and the General Services Administration (GSA), which manage the government’s real estate portfolio, have also announced similar programmes.
The Labour Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while a GSA spokesman noted that the agency’s new offer also applied to workers who had already been identified for dismissal.
The programme is one of many efforts to dramatically reduce the size and costs of the federal government.
The latest buyout offer takes a page from the so-called “fork-in-the-road” e-mail sent on Jan 28, offering a similar programme to all two million civilian full-time federal workers.
The “fork-in-the-road” e-mail was followed by Doge-led mass firings of tens of thousands of probationary workers, although a judge has since forced the Trump administration to rehire them, ruling that their terminations were likely illegal. Doge is now scything through departments in a second wave of large-scale layoffs. REUTERS
