The U.S. State Department began laying off more than 1,300 employees on Friday, July 11, 2025, in a sweeping reorganization effort aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities. The decision, announced earlier this week, follows months of legal battles and internal planning, culminating in what officials describe as a necessary streamlining of the agency’s workforce.
According to an internal notice, the layoffs affect 1,107 civil service employees and 246 foreign service officers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the cuts while traveling in Malaysia on Thursday, July 10th, stating, “Our intent is to move forward with the plans that we’ve notified Congress of weeks ago and that we took months to design.” Employees will receive formal notices via email, and many will initially be placed on administrative leave.
Rubio emphasized that the department’s structure had become “bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission.” As noted in his April 22 statement, the reorganization seeks to consolidate region-specific functions, eliminate redundant offices, and end programs “misaligned with America’s core national interests.” Recent government restructuring guidance offers insight into similar federal downsizing efforts.
Critics, however, have strongly opposed the layoffs, warning they could undermine U.S. diplomacy during ongoing global crises. Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called the cuts “blanket and indiscriminate,” adding, “There are active conflicts and humanitarian crises in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, Haiti, and Myanmar — to name a few. Now is the time to strengthen our diplomatic hand, not weaken it.” A Senate hearing on foreign service readiness underscored these concerns earlier this year.
An internal memo stated that nearly 3,000 workers will depart, a figure that includes voluntary separations and forced reductions. A senior official explained, “If a particular function was being performed that was no longer aligned with what the department was going to be doing going forward, that function was being eliminated. It was personnel agnostic.”
Thomas Yazdgerdi, president of the American Foreign Service Association, warned of the impact on morale, recruitment, and retention. “We’re like the military. We have personal rank and an up-or-out personnel system,” he stated. Yazdgerdi added that the diplomatic corps was already stretched thin before these cuts, contrasting the U.S. situation with China’s expanding diplomatic presence abroad.
