(The Hill) – By the end of 2025, the Trump administration is expected to have reduced the workforce by about 300,000 employees, as stated by Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, in a conversation with Reuters on Thursday.

Kupor attributed these departures primarily to voluntary buyouts rather than dismissals, representing a 12.5 percent decrease in the federal workforce since President Trump took office in January.

“I cannot force people to lay people off,” Kupor told the outlet.

In February, the Trump administration introduced a buyout plan for federal workers, offering eight months of compensation and anticipating that five to 10 percent would choose to resign.

Reuters reported in July that around 154,000 federal employees, or around 6.7 percent of the federal workforce, have taken the buyout.

By May, The New York Times documented almost 60,000 federal workers who had been terminated or laid off, though some were rehired due to ongoing legal proceedings. The publication also mentioned an anticipated 150,000 additional job cuts across different agencies.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), formerly under the leadership of billionaire Elon Musk, spearheaded the administration’s assertive actions, attempting to infiltrate agencies to access data.

Recently, DOGE’s progress has been hindered, following Musk’s contentious fall out with Trump and various judicial rulings that have obstructed parts of its initiatives, though some have been appealed successfully by DOGE.

Kupor was confirmed to be the head of the Office of Personnel Management in July. He was formerly a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the powerful Silicon Valley venture capital firm whose founders have become top supporters of the president.