The State Department will “soon” implement its workforce reduction plan, the first major deployed since the US Supreme Court paved the way for massive evictions of federal officials wanted by Donald Trump, he announced on Thursday.
This wave of layoffs does not concern the staff of American embassies abroad.
After the approval, in May, of a plan by the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “the State Department will soon inform the persons concerned by the reduction of personnel,” said in a statement Michael Rigas, deputy secretary of the State Department in charge of Human Resources, without further specifying the calendar.
All licensed officials will learn the news, by email, the same day, said a senior official of the State Department.
This announcement of American diplomacy comes only two days after the Supreme Court paved the way for the implementation of massive layoffs of federal officials wanted by Donald Trump by raising a suspension decided by a California court in May.
The State Department’s press release does not detail the extent of this imminent workforce reduction. But, to the question of comparing it to the figure of 1,800 advanced earlier in the year in an official communication at the Congress, “I would say that it is quite close,” replied a senior official.
The State Department had around 18,000 employees in the United States in September 2024, according to its services.
This senior official was specified that only the staff employed on the American territory was concerned and that there was “no project for the moment” to reduce the workforce abroad.
The American diplomacy chief announced at the end of April a vast restructuring project of his ministry.
At that time, the head of American diplomacy had shared on the social network X an article evoking projects to reduce workforce up to 15%.
Since his return to the White House at the end of January, Donald Trump has made federal officials one of his main targets. Under the leadership of a commission then led by Elon Musk, his ex-procurement with which he has since scrambled, the republican president led drum beating drastic cuts in the federal and saved administration in public spending.
