US agencies offer staff new buyouts ahead of Trump's layoff deadline

12/3/2025 6:15

Multiple government agencies are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they scramble to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to submit plans for a second round of mass layoffs.



The Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Food and Drug Administration, are among the agencies which have offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who agree to leave their jobs.



The buyout offers, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday deadline, human resource specialists at several federal agencies told Reuters.



The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous lenders.