The USDA has received a lot of criticism for the way it handled reductions in its workforce after President Trump took office for his second term. Feedstuffs says, by some estimates, the department has lost as many as 21,000 employees through reduction-in-force measures, the Deferred Resignations Program, and through other means. The Office of the Inspector General released a report examining the staffing levels across the agency for the first half of this year. After analyzing available data, the OIG found that between January 12 and June 14, 2025, USDA lost a total of 20,306 employees during that time. That’s a loss of 18 percent of its total workforce of 110,384 people on January 11. Some agencies and states fared worse than others. Rhode Island had the most losses at 38 percent of its agency workforce. Kentucky had the fewest losses at 12 percent.
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