Latest news with #staffreduction
New York Times
22-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Government's H.R. Arm Shedding a Third of Staff
The Office of Personnel Management, the government's human resources arm, has shed 10 percent of its staff and plans to shrink even more by the end of the year, the agency said on Monday. On Jan. 20, when President Trump returned to the White House, the agency had a staff of 3,110. Hundreds are leaving through incentive programs, and some are leaving without incentives. More than 125 have been laid off. The newly confirmed director, Scott Kupor, told reporters on Monday that he expected staffing to drop to 2,000, by the end of the year. Mr. Kupor said the agency was cutting its contractors by half as well, going from about 1,200 at the beginning of the year to 600 by the end of December. The personnel office has been issuing guidance to agencies for months about how to cut staff and consolidate or eliminate programs. Agencies offered incentives for people to resign voluntarily, which has shifted the calculation of how many employees the government would have to lay off to achieve President Trump's goal of shrinking the size of the federal work force. Some 788 employees at the personnel office took advantage of the incentives to retire early or resign and get paid through Sept. 30, while 152 others resigned without participating in any of the incentive programs. The agency laid off an additional 129 employees. The personnel office did not say what other agencies have planned, but the threat of layoffs has been looming since the earliest days of the administration. The Department of Health and Human Services laid off 10,000 employees this spring. And on July 11, the State Department laid off more than 1,000 employees after the Supreme Court lifted a lower court's block on mass government firings. Most agencies have not announced layoff plans, and the projected number of reductions has changed with thousands of employees leaving the government voluntarily. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently said it would not have to make layoffs because so many people decided to leave.
Washington Post
21-07-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
OPM to lose about 1,000 jobs, director says
The Office of Personnel Management will lose about one-third of its staff by the end of the year, with most of those volunteering to leave, the head of the federal government's human resources agency said Monday. Scott Kupor, who was sworn in as OPM director last week, told reporters that the department was offering options for workers to leave on their own, rather than making mass firings. The agency cut 129 jobs through a firing process called reductions in force, but 940 other workers volunteered for deferred resignations, early retirements or other forms of buyouts, according to figures provided by the agency.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Veterans Affairs Dept. drops plan to lay off thousands in August
The Department of Veterans Affairs has dropped plans revealed in a memo earlier this year to lay off tens of thousands of personnel in August, a news release from the department indicated Monday. The VA announced it's currently on pace to reduce its staff by about 30,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year, in September, thereby "eliminating the need for a large-scale reduction-in-force," or RIF. The department originally planned to reduce its staff to 2019 levels, or just under 400,000, according to a memo obtained by CBS News in March. The VA said in its release that it had "roughly 484,000 employees on Jan. 1, 2025" — meaning the initial plans would have required the VA to cut upwards of 80,000 jobs. In a statement included in the release, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins said that as a result of a "holistic" department-wide review, the VA "is headed in the right direction — both in terms of staff levels and customer service. A department-wide RIF is off the table, but that doesn't mean we're done improving VA." The VA acknowledged in the release that the agency "had been considering a department-wide RIF to reduce staff levels by up to 15%," but said "employee reductions through the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements and normal attrition have eliminated the need for that RIF." A spokesperson for the VA said in a statement Monday that it spent "nearly four months conducting a holistic review of the department to see what needs to be changed." The department claimed that in recent months, the VA has improved services for veterans, citing "huge drops in the number of Veterans waiting for disability benefits, sizeable increases in claims processing productivity, and extraordinary progress regarding our electronic health record modernization." The spokesperson said the original number of 80,000 staff cuts "got employees thinking outside of the box to come up with new and better ways of serving Veterans," and the "main goal all along has been creating the best possible experiences and outcomes" for veterans and their families. Under the Biden administration, the VA hired tens of thousands of workers, in part to help administer the PACT Act, which addresses toxic exposures veterans suffered while serving in the military. The Trump administration initially looked at cutting staff levels to pre-Biden administration levels. The Trump administration imposed a broader hiring freeze on many government jobs earlier this year, part of a push to cut the size of the federal workforce. The VA exempted some roles from that freeze, including many health care jobs at the agency's hospital network. The administration also offered a voluntary "deferred resignation" deal that allowed thousands of federal workers to leave their jobs in early February and get paid until September. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut took note of the reversal of the planned mass layoffs at the VA and blamed the work environment at the department. "This announcement makes clear VA is bleeding employees across the board at an unsustainable rate because of the toxic work environment created by this Administration and DOGE's slash and trash policies," Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said in a statement. "This is not 'natural' attrition, it is not strategic, and it will inevitably impact veterans' care and benefits — no matter what blanket assurances the VA Secretary hides behind." Blumenthal noted the VA workforce usually expands by about 10,000 "in a typical year," and its statement that it was losing 30,000 this year means the VA "still stands to lose tens of thousands more employees than ever before." He complained that the administration "repeatedly refused to share any additional information about this plan to cut 83,000 VA employees and what positions would be targeted." Death toll rises as desperate search for Texas flash flood survivors continues Sabrina Carpenter on the biggest misperceptions about her How Lady Liberty became a beacon for immigrants
Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
IMI staff headcount shrank before sale to Business Post group
One of Ireland's oldest business schools, the Irish Management Institute (IMI) , trimmed its staff headcount by almost 20 per cent in the year before the Business Post group agreed to acquire the executive education provider from University College Cork (UCC). Newly filed accounts for the IMI show that losses at the Sandyford, south county Dublin-based institute, narrowed to just over €431,000 in the 12 months to September last from more than €1 million in the previous 12 months. The IMI reportedly issued protective notice to more than 30 staff in the summer of 2023, warning of potential redundancies. Staff numbers at the school subsequently shrank from 77 in 2023 to 63 in the year to September 2024, according to the latest filings, a reduction of more than 18 per cent. READ MORE Consequently, staff costs – including wages, salaries, social welfare contributions and pension costs – declined by almost 19 per cent to €4.66 million in the year. In a report attached to the accounts, the IMI's directors said the market for executive education remained challenging due to escalating direct and indirect costs. [ Business Post expected to move to Irish Management Institute (IMI) campus Opens in new window ] 'However, despite these challenges, the programme of turnaround activities, commenced in the prior year, has strengthened the company and significantly reduced the deficit for the year.' Accumulated losses of more than €5.2 million had built up at the company, which is limited by guarantee and has no share capital, by the end of September 2024, according to the accounts. The IMI's directors also noted that after the financial year end, they had signed non-binding 'heads of terms' related to the potential sale of the institute and its assets to a 'third party'. How the wealthy are buying up land to avoid inheritance tax Listen | 22:03 Enda O'Coineen's Business Post Group subsequently acquired the institute in a deal that was finalised in May. UCC will reportedly retain control of the sprawling 13-acre campus in suburban south county Dublin as part of the transaction. At the time of the deal, the Business Post Group said the addition of IMI would complement its existing portfolio and align with its 'House of Brands' vision to deliver content through experiences through 'insights' with and executive education. 'Our group of companies bring together the power of news reporting and insights as well as research – this will help to further inform IMI on the trends and emerging areas that leaders need to know and understand,' Mr O'Coineen said at the time. The Irish Times reported in May that staff at the newspaper had been told the news publisher's operations will likely move to the IMI campus when the lease on its offices on Merrion Road expires later this year.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TomTom to cut 300 jobs amid AI shift
(Reuters) -Dutch location technology company TomTom said on Monday it would cut 300 jobs as it realigns its organization and embraces artificial intelligence as part of its product-led strategy. The group said the staff reductions concern its units working on the application layer, as well as sales and support functions.
