The US State Department is laying off over 1,300 diplomats and civil servants as part of a reorganisation plan initiated earlier this year by President Donald Trump’s administration, reported AP.
A senior official at the State Department announced on Friday that 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic US assignments will receive layoff notices.
The Foreign Service officers anticipated to be affected by the layoffs will be placed on administrative leave for a period of 120 days immediately. Following this, they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice cited by AP. The separation period for the most affected civil servants is 60 days, it added.
“In connection with the departmental reorganisation… the department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” the notice read. It further said, “headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralisation or consolidation of functions and responsibilities.”
These job cuts have received praise from President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and their Republican allies, who consider them overdue and essential for making the department more streamlined, agile, and effective. However, they have faced strong criticism from current and former diplomats, who argue that these cuts will undermine US influence and its capacity to address current and emerging threats overseas.
Supreme Court gives green light
The development comes days after the US Supreme Court approved the Trump administration’s plans to significantly downsize government jobs and implement widespread workforce reductions across numerous agencies. These plans are expected to cause thousands of layoffs and restructure the federal bureaucracy.
US govt layoffs
So far, tens of thousands of federal employees have been fired, lef jobs through deferred resignation programs, or placed on leave. While official numbers for the reductions in staff has not been provided, it is estimated that at least 75,000 federal employees have taken deferred resignations, and numerous probationary workers have already been dismissed, AP reported.