In the wake of terminating thousands of probationary employees, the Trump administration has identified a pressing need for early-career workers to bolster the federal workforce.
Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), articulated this need in a conversation with Fortune, noting, “We’ve got close to half of our population that’s within 10 years of retirement age.” He highlighted the significant demographic challenge posed by a large number of employees nearing retirement or already eligible for it, underscoring the necessity of replenishing the influx of early-career talent into the workforce.
On Monday, OPM announced the launch of the Early Career Talent Network, aimed at recruiting entry-level workers for various federal roles. This initiative encompasses positions in finance, human resources, engineering, project management, and procurement. It presents young professionals the opportunity to explore government careers without the obligation of a lengthy commitment to the public sector, as stated by Kupor.
Currently, early-career individuals—defined as those with five to seven years of experience—constitute approximately 7% of the 2 million civilian federal workforce, in contrast to over 20% of the overall U.S. labor market.
The recruitment initiative emerges as Gen Z enters a stagnant labor market that proves particularly challenging for individuals at the start of their careers. An analysis conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York revealed that the unemployment rate for college graduates aged 22 to 27 reached 5.6% at the end of 2025, exceeding the overall unemployment rate of 4.2% observed during the same period, and rising from 4.2% for college graduates in mid-2023.
This hiring initiative marks a notable shift from the Trump administration’s initial approach to reduce the federal workforce, especially at the entry-level. In the early days of his second term, President Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with the ambitious aim of trimming contracts and reducing employee numbers, targeting a $2 trillion reduction in the federal budget.
OPM served as the operational arm of DOGE. Between January 2025 and January 2026, the federal workforce experienced a departure of 386,826 personnel, which included approximately 17,000 through reductions in force. Notably, many of these employees were probationary, having been in their roles for less than a year; the majority of those who left chose to resign or retire.
In contrast, around 122,000 new employees entered the federal workforce during the same period, marking a 55% decline from the previous year, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Consequently, the federal workforce has witnessed a net reduction of 264,000 positions.
Musk asserted that DOGE saved $200 billion, but a December report from the Cato Institute estimated that a 10% workforce reduction would yield savings of approximately only $40 billion.
Moreover, even DOGE employee Nate Cavanaugh indicated in a January deposition that the initiative did not succeed in reducing the federal deficit.
Transforming the Federal Workforce
Kupor emphasized that the recent cuts and subsequent hiring efforts are part of a cohesive strategy: “We’re reshaping the workforce to ensure that we have the right talent for the right roles.”
He added, “A huge push is around technology, for example. That’s an area where we don’t have all the skills we need to execute the modernization efforts that we’d like.”
In December, the Trump administration unveiled the U.S. Tech Force, an initiative geared towards recruiting 1,000 engineers and specialists to collaborate with private-sector technology companies for the development of AI infrastructure within the federal government. This employment program is set for a duration of two years for each cohort and specifically targets early-career professionals.
This move followed DOGE’s significant workforce reductions last year, including cuts to the U.S. Digital Corps and the General Services Administration’s 18F program that aimed to enhance the government’s technological efficiency.
Kupor remarked that the U.S. Tech Force serves as an opportunity to scale and learn from past initiatives. OPM recently launched a comparable recruitment effort with NASA earlier this month.
He stressed, “We need people with modern software development. We need people with modern AI understanding. We need data science.”
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