Sifting Through: Federal Separations in 2025 and Their Implications for Knowledge Loss and Agency Capacity
2026-08-22
The federal service experienced unprecedented turnover in the first year of the second Trump administration. Early reports have documented the substantial losses of personnel and the politicization and antagonism underlying those changes. This research breaks down separations over the past year, with a focus on the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), to understand where turnover occurred and how it affected organizational knowledge and capacity. The analysis examines federal workforce data from January 2015 to December 2025 and reveals that the federal service lost substantial expertise and experience through both voluntary and involuntary means of separation. These results shed light on the fallout from 2025 executive actions, clarify the implications for government capacity, and point out prospective pathways for mitigating damages to the federal service moving forward.