Are there now less gov workers than in decades past?

Do you like high interest rates? Want more cowbell? So long as the US Gov spends more than it takes in you can expect more of the same.

Is reducing the number of governement workers a necessary step to reduce gov spending? Yup. Not suggesting however the DOGE approach was used prudent tactics.

A new rule from the Trump administration could make it easier to dismiss senior government workers

The government is carving out a new job category for high-ranking federal employees that could make it easier for them to dismiss about 50,000 workers, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Fed head dread

A rule issued by the US Office of Personnel Management last Thursday created a category for senior career officials whose work is policy determining, making, or advocating in nature. Workers falling into these areas would be made exempt from long-standing job protections that allowed employees to appeal against firing or disciplinary actions.

That’s just the latest bad news for federal workers. Having already shrunk rapidly last year, the government’s employment levels fell to 2.73 million in October, the lowest point since July 2014. That was down 179,000 from September, the largest month-over-month drop since 1995, per data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Per the BLS, the data includes employees who “accepted a deferred resignation offer” and finally “came off federal payrolls” — meaning that the October slump reflects those affected by the extensive layoffs under DOGE (which was disbanded around November), as well as workers dismissed during the recent government shutdown who were still considered employed while furloughed.

According to new jobs data out today, federal government employment continued to decline in January — with 34,000 jobs lost in the first month of the year — despite a broadly rosier-than-expected picture elsewhere.