Washington DC - President Donald Trump's administration will shed about 300,000 government workers over the course of 2025, its human resources chief forecasted.

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor on Thursday revealed that the government workforce would be cut by about 12.5% by the end of 2025, the equivalent of 300,000 people.

According to Kupor, about 20% of those workers will be fired while 80% are expected to leave voluntarily under various schemes set up by the Trump administration.

"I cannot force people to lay people off," Kupor said in an interview, according to Reuters, while citing a total number of cut staff that is nearly double the previous estimate of 154,000.

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Kupor's statement contrasts to the OPM's strategy throughout the first few months of Trump's second administration.

A court filing in February alleged that the OPM directed government agencies to fire all probationary employees.

Since Trump re-entered office in January 2025, he has initiated mass layoffs across the civil service, including a near-entire dismantling of several agencies.

These staff cuts have been challenged in numerous lawsuits across numerous courts, to varying degrees of success.

In July, the State Department began laying off more than 1,300 employees after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the firings to begin.

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The American Foreign Service Association condemned the cuts at the time, calling them a "catastrophic blow to our national interests."

Trump plans to continue downsizing the federal workforce, which is made up of about 2.4 million people.

A White House fact sheet released in February claimed that Trump is "committed to reducing the size and scope of the federal government" in a bid to make the workforce more "efficient and effective."