About 20,000 federal workers have accepted the "buyout" offer put forward by the Trump administration last week, a senior administration official tells Axios.
It's a significant number of people — about 1% of the federal workforce — but still substantially less than the White House's target of 5% to 10%.
The offer is open through Thursday, meaning the total could rise, despite heavy opposition from unions and others.
Aside from the pace of resignations, the official said, the administration is still trying to implement a hiring freeze. It has proven trickier than expected because some agencies are still taking on new workers.
Critics argue the offer is illegal, there's no real guarantee people will get paid out, and it's something Congress would need to authorize. The administration rejects those assertions and says it's following through on a promise to restructure the federal government.
The federal workforce's normal attrition rate is about 6% a year, meaning some of those who've taken the buyout may have been planning to leave government service anyway.
Posted by John3262005
4 Comments
I think it’s a complete lack of trust in the administration to keep their word. It will probably rise, as I’m sure a lot of federal workers are just looking for a new job right now and will resign once they get an offer.
But why would anyone trust this offer? The memo was incredibly vague and it didn’t provide the detail you would expect from something like this. I had a buyout offer from a previous company. There was a lot of fine print and legal disclaimers, but I fully trusted the company would keep their word. I definitely wouldn’t trust this offer.
“It’s a significant number of people”…. Is it though?
Man, that “buyout” money doesn’t exist and these people are getting fleeced. RIP.
I fully believe that significant number of folks have taken the “deal”
But to me, 20k coming from this admin is laughable. It reeks of “see look everyone is doing it”
Id bet the real number is closer to 8k-12k