US government faces brain drain as 154,000 federal workers exit this week

WASHINGTON - More than 150,000 federal employees will leave the US government payroll this week after accepting buyouts – the largest single-year exodus of civil servants in nearly 80 years, triggering what unions and governance experts warn is a damaging loss of institutional expertise.

The official resignations begin on Sept 30 for workers who opted into a deferred exit programme that kept them on the payroll through September.

The buyouts are a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s push to shrink the federal workforce, combining financial incentives with threats of dismissal for those who declined the offer.

Many left their agencies months ago, according to the federal government’s HR office, and have effectively been on paid leave.

Dr Don Moynihan of the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan said the biggest impact of this week’s exodus will be the brain drain of so many experienced civil servants, a loss of talent he says will be hard to reverse.

“It takes years to develop deep knowledge and expertise to deliver government programmes these people run. Now much of the knowledge is walking out the door,” Dr Moynihan said.

The loss of expertise is making it harder for many agencies to carry out their work and serve the American public, according to interviews with a dozen current and former government staff and union officials.

The buyouts have adversely impacted a wide range of government activities, including weather forecasting, food safety, health programmes and space projects, according to the people who spoke to Reuters.

At the National Weather Service, nearly 200 people took buyouts, causing a loss of experienced meteorologists and technical staff who maintain forecasting equipment.

“It has caused massive disruption in offices throughout the country,” said Mr Tom Fahy, legislative director of the National Weather Service Employees Organisation.

Ms Jasmine Blackwell, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the weather service, said jobs were being offered as needed “to ensure both the safety of Americans and the responsible use of taxpayer dollars”.

Democratic former president Bill Clinton holds the post-World War II record for government employment cuts, but that was over the full eight years of his two-term presidency. Mr Clinton oversaw a federal workforce reduction of more than 430,000, or about 20 per cent.

At the same time, though, a red-hot economy and tech boom produced more than 22 million private-sector jobs during Mr Clinton’s term, and his federal workforce cuts left no visible imprint on the overall job market.

Nasa brain drain

Nearly 4,000 Nasa employees took the two buyouts the Trump administration offered in January and April, said Mr Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, a union that represents 8,000 Nasa employees.

“The agency is losing some of the most brilliant engineers and aeronautic scientists in the world, and they are not being replaced,” Mr Biggs said.

Ms Cheryl Warner, a Nasa spokeswoman, said the agency is pursuing a “golden age” of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars. “The agency will continue to assess the types of skills and roles needed to meet our priorities,” she said.

The buyouts, which have been taken by 154,000 workers, were part of a broader push by Mr Trump, a Republican, and his billionaire former adviser Elon Musk, who argued that the federal workforce had become too big and too inefficient.

Opposition Democrats say the cuts have been indiscriminate.

The US government spent US$359 billion (S$462.98 billion) on civilian employee pay and benefits in the 2023 budget year, according to the most recently available published figures.

Through a combination of buyouts, firings and other incentives for workers to quit, the Trump administration will likely shed around 300,000 workers by the end of this year, its human resources chief said in August, which would amount to a 12.5 per cent decrease in the federal workforce since January.

The buyouts will produce an estimated US$28 billion in savings annually, said Ms McLaurine Pinover, a spokeswoman at the Office of Personnel and Management, which handles federal HR matters.

Reuters could not independently verify whether that figure is accurate.

“The Deferred Resignation Programme delivered incredible relief to the American taxpayer,” Ms Pinover said.

The exit of so many workers from the federal payroll at once is unlikely to affect the national unemployment rate, as the federal workforce accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of all payroll employment, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

Buyouts take toll on health agencies

At the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), roughly 1,200 employees took resignation offers, about 17 per cent of the agency’s staff.

One of those was a scientist who specialised in rapid detection of fungal toxins in grain elevators, which helps farmers and grain processors assess whether crops are contaminated, said Mr Ethan Roberts, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3247, a union which represents some ARS employees.

Without the scientist’s highly specialised knowledge, there is no one to carry forward that work, Mr Roberts said.

Contaminated grains can severely sicken or even kill people and livestock, according to the World Health Organisation.

An Agriculture Department spokesperson said the agency will maintain all its critical functions despite the departure of more than 15,000 workers through the resignation programmes.

The buyouts have also taken a toll on health agencies, including the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced in March the department would cut 10,000 employees through a combination of layoffs and buyouts. He said they would include 3,500 at the FDA and 2,400 at the CDC.

A federal employee, granted anonymity for fear of retribution, said the FDA was struggling to update its National Youth Tobacco Survey, which collects data on tobacco use among US middle and high-school students, because of buyouts and layoffs at the tobacco prevention and control unit of the CDC.

Mr Andrew Nixon, a Health Department spokesman, said suggestions of a “brain drain” were misplaced and that the CDC and FDA remain deeply committed to tobacco prevention and control. REUTERS