Washington: The United States government has hired nearly 50,000 new employees since President Donald Trump took office, with most appointments made in national security agencies, senior personnel officials confirmed. The hiring shift reflects the administration’s strategy to reshape the federal workforce while reducing staff in other departments.
Scott Kupor, the federal government’s human resources chief, told Reuters that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accounted for a significant share of the new positions, in line with Trump’s focus on border security and immigration enforcement. He said the administration’s staffing decisions were designed to prioritize areas deemed crucial.
“It’s about reshaping the workforce to focus on the priorities we consider most important,” Kupor said.
The new hires come even as the administration continues a hiring freeze across many agencies and executes large-scale layoffs in departments such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services. In August, Kupor said the government expected to cut around 300,000 positions by the end of the year.
The workforce overhaul is part of a broader downsizing initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump appointed in January to streamline the 2.4 million-strong federal civilian staff. The administration has argued that the federal government had become too large and inefficient.
As part of the reductions, thousands of employees involved in civil rights enforcement, tax collection, and clean energy programs were dismissed. Additionally, about 154,000 federal workers accepted voluntary buyouts earlier this year. These buyouts affected a wide range of services including meteorology, food safety, public health initiatives, and space research, according to former employees and union representatives.
The administration maintains that the restructuring will strengthen national security while reducing what it views as government inefficiencies.
