Full Breakdown
Federal Hiring Push for FY 2027: OPM Sets New Priorities
8/6/2026, 9:02:52 PM
Background & Context
The hiring push follows a year of sweeping staffing reductions that have produced a net loss of about 271,600 federal employees since early 2025. The share of employees under age 30 fell from roughly 9 % in 2024 to 8 % in 2025, reflecting a broader decline in early-career interest. Over 11,100 federal HR staff have left since the Trump administration took office, contributing to a net loss of more than 9,000 HR professionals government-wide. Agency-specific losses include roughly 1,000 cybersecurity staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and a decline of more than 20,000 employees in the 0343 project-manager series.
Data & Statistics
- Early-career hiring goal for FY 2027: >= 33 % of all hires.
- Shared-certificate hiring goal for FY 2027: >= 60 % of hires.
- Tech Force positions targeted: ? 1,000; recruits onboarded to date: ? 300.
- Open federal job announcements (June 2026): 12,805, with about three-quarters concentrated in the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
- USAJobs postings dropped 42.8 % between 2024 and 2025.
- Net federal workforce decline since early 2025: ? 271,600 employees.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Many agencies have gone on college campuses in the past, so nothing we’re doing here is brand new,” — OPM Director Scott Kupor — Scott Kupor, OPM Director
- “We are certainly looking to hire folks,” — Scott Kupor, OPM director — Scott Kupor, OPM Director
- “Historically, every agency has done their own thing as they’ve hired, but because we did a survey and we have a headcount planning exercise that we now do pan-government, we now can see cross-agency some of these big areas, like HR, for example, that people are hiring,” — Scott Kupor, OPM director — Scott Kupor, OPM Director
- “Half the battle in government is just an education and awareness problem, just given the vastness and the scale and decentralization of everything,” — Scott Kupor, OPM director — Scott Kupor, OPM Director
What’s Next
By the end of August, agencies must complete “bottom-up” data calls to subcomponents, creating a staffing picture for the upcoming budget cycle. In early September, chief human-capital officers will consolidate component plans into agency-wide “detailed hiring forecasts,” which will be reviewed by strategic hiring committees, OPM, and the Office of Management and Budget. The memo also requires that every hiring assessment incorporate a validated technical test, eliminating self-assessments from the recruitment process.
