By Scott Patterson, Lindsay Ellis and Sadie Gurman
The Trump administration on Thursday stepped up the firing of federal workers who have been on the job for less than a year, the next phase of its personnel cuts that could affect hundreds of thousands of people.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many workers in probationary periods—who have served less than one year, or less than two years for “excepted service”—were fired on Thursday. More than 200,000 employees, or nearly 10% of the civilian federal workforce, have been on the job for a year or less, according to Office of Personnel Management data.
Probationary workers in departments and agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, the Energy Department and OPM were pushed out on Thursday, according to federal worker union staff and people familiar with the matter. Others were dismissed earlier this week. Agencies across the federal government submitted lists of their probationary employees in January, and in a memo, OPM directed them to determine whether those employees should be retained.
The Trump administration in recent days urged agencies to classify probation periods as a continuation of the job-application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment, according to a person familiar with the communications. Rather than target probationary employees as a group, agencies have been directed in meetings with OPM officials to focus on “low-performing” newly hired federal workers, the person said.
About 3,400 Forest Service employees and 2,000 Energy Department staffers were laid off on Thursday, said Randy Erwin, national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees. Some probationary employees at Treasury and the General Services Administration also have been cut, a person familiar with the matter said.
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