Women and People of Color Comprise Most Fired Federal Workers
New figures show women and POCs accounted for a majority of workers in the departments that have been targeted for layoffs.
A new report published by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has shown that women and people of color account for a majority of the federal workers who have been laid off as a result of the sweeping budget cuts ordered by the Trump administration.
In March 2025, the Trump administration erased both current and historic data on the race and ethnicity of the federal workforce from the Office of Personnel Management’s public data website, but the NWLC—a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit—used data it had retained from September 2024 to conduct its analysis.
It found that even though women made up about 46% of the total federal workforce back in September 2024, they accounted for “a substantial majority of the workforce” in the five departments that have so far been targeted with major layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
People of color, meanwhile, made up about 41% of the federal workforce in September 2024, but—according to the NWLC—they similarly accounted for a majority of workers in four of those departments: The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education, the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The administration’s attack on the federal workforce is an attack on economic opportunities and the progress this country has made in leveling the playing field,” said Sarah Javaid, the author of the report and senior research analyst at NWLC. “Federal jobs have long provided a path to the middle class—especially for Black workers, women and others who face workplace discrimination—because of their stability, union representation, opportunities for promotion, workplace benefits, and commitment to fair and transparent pay,” she added. “But Trump is hellbent on furthering his anti-diversity, anti-equity, anti-inclusion agenda that not only harms workers, but cuts agencies that serve all of us.”
According to the NWLC, women also made up a majority of those working in several independent agencies across which job cuts have been severe. In the Social Security Administration, for example, women made up 66% of the workforce, and in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission they accounted for 62%.
