Nearly 3,000 members of the U.S. Department of State workforce will depart as part of the reorganization.
NEW YORK, July 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of State has begun firing more than 1,300 people as part of a dramatic overhaul of the agency, U.S. media reported on Friday.
"The firings will affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers," reported CNN after reviewing an internal notice. "It comes as the State Department implements a drastic reorganization as part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to shrink the federal government."
Hundreds of offices and bureaus are being eliminated or altered as a result of the changes being implemented on Friday, it added.
Employees will receive layoff notices via email, the notice said. The firings are happening as Secretary of State Marco Rubio is out of Washington, D.C., on a flight back from an overseas trip to Malaysia.
"Nearly 3,000 members of the workforce will depart as part of the reorganization," the notice said. That number includes people who are being fired as well as those leaving voluntarily.
"In connection with the Departmental reorganization first announced by the Secretary of State on April 22, 2025, the Department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities," it said, adding that "headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralization or consolidation of functions and responsibilities."
While quoting a senior State Department official on condition of anonymity, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on Friday also confirmed the reported number of layoffs.
In late May, the State Department notified Congress of an updated reorganization plan, proposing cuts to programs beyond what had been revealed earlier by Rubio as well as an 18 percent reduction of staff in the United States, higher than the 15 percent initially floated in April.
According to The New York Times, the State Department "formally notified staffers on Thursday that it was about to begin layoffs as part of a consolidation plan that department officials say will reduce bureaucratic bloat," coming as part of dramatic changes to the agency that the Trump administration announced earlier this year.
Michael Rigas, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, said in a statement that select staffers would be informed if they were being laid off and called it part of the department's biggest reorganization in decades.
Federal government layoffs, formally known as Reduction in Force (RIF) actions, are currently underway as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reshape the federal workforce. These actions are being carried out across various agencies and are subject to legal challenges and ongoing court battles.■
