The next generation of federal employees have left public service at a greater rate compared to the entire workforce since the start of the second Trump administration.
The Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday that in 2025, probationary employees separated at a higher rate compared to all staffers. The congressional watchdog office analyzed workforce data for 11 agencies and found last year that roughly 19 percent of their trial period workers separated while about 15 percent of all their staff left.
Those probationary employees are typically in their first year on the job in government and have fewer workplace protections than their more senior counterparts. As part of President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to downsize the federal workforce, the administration targeted those employees early on and sparked mass firings across agencies.
Over two-thirds, or 78.6 percent, of the probationary workers who left did so voluntarily either through resignations or the “deferred resignation” program, GAO uncovered. Meanwhile, 17.8 percent of that group separated not by choice but from firings, layoffs or expired appointments.
