White House RIFs lead to significant workforce downsizing amid shutdown

The White House began a sweeping reduction of its workforce on Friday Government shutdown It was withdrawn to the second week.

“The economic restructuring and reform frameworks have begun,” Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), wrote in X, using an abbreviation for “cuts in effect.”

An official at the Office of Management and Budget, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Fox News Digital that the reduction would be “significant.” The White House referred questions to the Office of Management and Budget.

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The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. ET on October 7, forcing agencies to send home workers in roles not considered essential.

Vacations are usually temporary; Once Congress The crisis is resolved, employees return to work and receive their back wages.

However, this shutdown, which extends into its second week, comes as the Trump administration warns that furloughs across the federal government could become permanent.

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What’s more, Washington, D.C., home to a large number of federal workers, was hit particularly hard after Elon Musk’s decision. Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) Advisory Board called for layoffs earlier this year.

These employees are entering a labor market that has been losing momentum Unemployment It rose to about 4.3% in August, which is the highest number since 2021.

White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt on Monday placed the blame squarely on Democrats for that possibility Mass layoffsReiterating the administration’s position on the ongoing closure.

“This talk about layoffs wouldn’t be happening now if Democrats hadn’t voted to shut down the government,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Sunday that layoffs would begin “if the president decides that negotiations will go absolutely nowhere.”

He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he hopes “we can make Democrats realize that it makes sense to avoid layoffs in this way.”

Hassett added that if Democrats are “reasonable once they return to town on Monday,” Trump will see “no reason to lay off workers.”

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Government shutdowns have become more frequent in recent decades, with political brinkmanship becoming a hallmark of budget negotiations.

Each week of the shutdown cuts about 0.2% from US economic growth, although this loss is usually offset once federal employees return and agencies reopen.

Since 1976, the US government has experienced 20 shutdowns.

The most recent, and longest in US history, occurred when a dispute over funding for Trump’s border wall shut down government operations for 34 days, spanning from December 2018 to January 2019.