Recently updated federal data shows the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has 21 percent fewer employees since the start of the Trump administration, leaving some state offices entirely unstaffed.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) updated a database on the federal workforce on Jan. 8 that provides greater detail about agency employment. It also enables an important check-in on the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce.

In total, over 24,600 employees left the USDA during the first year of the Trump administration. Nearly 6,000 employees also joined the federal service during this time. The departures had an impact on staffing in key agricultural states like California, Texas, and Idaho. The total USDA workforce in California decreased by 11 percent, while the workforce in Texas and Idaho dropped 18 and 19 percent respectively.

The highest percentage of departures, however, happened in the District of Columbia and Maryland, where federal USDA offices are located.

Conservation and agriculture groups have warned of the impact of staffing cuts on USDA operations, largely those happening at state field offices. These local offices engage most directly with farmers and are critical to administering farm aid and farm programs.

Conservation and agriculture groups have warned of the impact of staffing cuts on USDA state field offices, which engage most directly with farmers and are critical to administering farm aid and farm programs.

The updated data, which reflects staffing levels as of the end of November 2025, includes 37 instances where a state-level USDA agency no longer has even a single employee present. This includes six states that no longer have employees at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and five states that no longer have a local Food and Nutrition Service staffer, according to an analysis of the data.

The data includes 400 instances in which a quarter of experienced USDA staff—those who have worked at the agency more than one year—at state offices have departed. In California, 36 percent of experienced rural development staff exited the agency. In Idaho, 53 percent of experienced staff left the state’s rural development office.

Overall, the rural development agency saw the greatest decline in staff with a 35 percent reduction, or 1,811 employees. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) saw 2,903 employees leave, which is about 23 percent of the service’s workforce. Previous documents showed about 2,400 employees at NRCS accepted resignation offers between January and April of last year.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the front door for America’s farmers and ranchers, who are facing more uncertainty than ever.”

The updated data follows a report from the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) that found many of these staffing cuts happened between January 12 and June 14 of 2025, within the first six months of the Trump administration.

Following the OIG report release, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the cuts to the USDA staff leave food supply chains more vulnerable and hurt rural economies.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the front door for America’s farmers and ranchers, who are facing more uncertainty than ever,” Klobuchar said in a statement on the OIG report. “Rural Americans need a Department that is ready and capable of serving them.”

The updated OPM data also shows that the number of USDA employees participating in a union bargaining unit has declined sharply since July 2025. The percentage of employees in a bargaining unit dropped from 42 percent in July to 31 percent in November. The percentage of employees not eligible for the union also increased from 25.5 percent to nearly 43 percent in the same period.

This drop follows two executive orders from President Donald Trump that exclude many federal workers from collective bargaining due to “national security” risks. While there have been legal and legislative pushes to reverse this, agencies have moved forward with plans to rescind collective bargaining agreements.

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