The Trump administration has lowered its estimate of federal worker layoffs linked to the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. According to a U.S. Department of Justice filing on Tuesday, 4,108 federal employees have been dismissed since October 1, the day the shutdown began. This figure is a revision from last week’s estimate of 4,278 layoffs, signaling that initial claims of large-scale job cuts were overstated.
While the administration has attributed the dismissals to the shutdown, critics argue that the move marks an unprecedented use of a funding lapse to justify permanent job cuts. Historically, federal shutdowns—15 since 1981—have resulted in temporary furloughs, not mass firings. The U.S. government currently employs about 2 million civilian workers, meaning these layoffs represent only a small fraction of the total workforce.
President Donald Trump has sought to pressure Democrats into backing his spending plan by linking the shutdown to job losses and program cuts. His approach has sparked outrage among lawmakers and federal unions. Employee unions have filed lawsuits, arguing that conducting layoffs during a shutdown violates federal law, which limits agency activity to essential services such as national security and public safety.
The layoffs are expected to disrupt crucial government operations, including disease outbreak investigations and educational support programs. Lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia—states with a large concentration of federal workers—condemned the cuts at a rally near the White House. “We will not be defined by small people who have not a drop of empathy in their soul,” said Representative Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat.
A federal judge is scheduled to hear the unions’ case on October 15, as the shutdown continues to strain public services and thousands of American families.