FOIA data shows uneven federal hiring early in 2025
A FOIA request to the Office of Personnel Management reveals who the federal government hired in early 2025 and where they were hired.
The dataset covers civilian hires and transfers from January through March 2025. It sheds light on agency hiring freezes, carveouts, and staffing tied to the Department of Government Efficiency.
The data arrives as agencies continue responding to 2024 FOIA requests.
The Law in Play
The disclosure arises under the Freedom of Information Act. OPM released a dataset listing hires by agency and subagency, hire month, appointment type, and partial compensation data. Names and salaries appear in about one-third of records, with the remainder redacted. The opposing concern is privacy and personnel security, which explains the redactions.
Timeline
March 2024: FOIA request submitted to OPM seeking federal hire data.
January 2025: Agencies continue hiring amid early policy shifts.
February 2025: Government-wide hiring composition changes.
March 2025: Overall hiring drops sharply.
Present: Dataset released and analyzed.
What the Data Shows
OPM records show 24,888 hires and transfers across civilian agencies from January through March 2025. The data identifies hiring categories, mostly career-conditional and excepted service roles. It does not show terminations or attrition, and it excludes the military workforce. Hire dates are monthly, not daily, so pre- and post-inauguration timing cannot be separated within January.
One agency stands out. The Internal Revenue Service hired 1,313 people in January 2025, then hired none in February or March. Over the next two months, the IRS laid off about 11,000 workers, roughly 11% of its workforce. The agency did not comment.
January hiring exceeded 10,000 government-wide. The IRS accounted for about one-ninth of those hires. In February, total hiring stayed similar, but nearly 80% of new hires came from Defense and Homeland Security. In March, total hiring fell by about half. The Department of Veterans Affairs ranked third in hiring, with Agriculture and Justice also in the top five.
Several agencies recorded zero civilian hires in February and March. They include the US Marshals Service, the US Geological Survey, the ATF, the Census Bureau, and the National Archives.
Agencies that continued hiring aligned with stated administration priorities. They include TSA, Veterans Health Administration, FAA, Customs and Border Protection, Bureau of Prisons, Secret Service, and Coast Guard.
DOGE Staffing Signals
Identifying DOGE decision-makers requires inference. Many early DOGE staff initially received no government salary. Filtering for zero compensation yields 55 individuals, all of whom are excepted service appointments. Some names later tied to DOGE appear on the list, with details provided to FEMA, NOAA, the Social Security Administration, OPM, GSA, EPA, Treasury, and State. Defense details are redacted.
The list also includes presidential appointees, such as Education Secretary Linda McMahon and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Not every zero-compensation hire is tied to DOGE.
Pay and Placement
The Immediate Office of the Administrator at GSA shows a cluster of DOGE-related hires. Twenty people were hired there between January and March 2025. Six received no salary. Thirteen received $125,133 in annual base pay. One entry, Stephen Ehikian, received $183,100 as acting GSA administrator before leaving later in 2025.
Another entry, Amy Gleason, appears as acting DOGE administrator and as detailed to HHS. She later stated publicly that she chose to stay at DOGE beyond an initial transition role and noted that DOGE is hiring.
What It Means in Practice
Hiring data can identify de facto policy priorities during freezes.
Zero-salary entries can flag special initiatives using the excepted service authority.
Monthly hire data limits precise timing analysis around inaugurations.
Attrition data remain essential for assessing net workforce changes.
Redactions constrain name-level accountability across agencies.
Whats Next
Additional FOIA requests could target attrition and termination counts by agency to pair with hiring data. Agencies may also release updated datasets covering later months of 2025. Congressional oversight may seek clarification on the use of excepted service and compensation practices.
One More Thing
FOIA hiring data shows not just who joined the government, but which agencies were allowed to keep moving while others stopped cold.
Source: Bloomberg