US state department to lay off over 1,300 staff

The US State Department is set to lay off more than 1,300 people on Friday as part of a dramatic overhaul of the agency.

According to a notice by the state department, the lay offs will affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers.

The state department explained that the lay offs are part of a drastic reorganisation plan of the Trump administration to shrink the federal government.

Hundreds of offices and bureaus are being eliminated or altered as a result of the changes.

Employees will receive layoff notices via email, the notice said.

The lay offs are happening as US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio is out of Washington, DC, on a flight back from an overseas trip to Malaysia.

“Nearly 3,000 members of the workforce will depart as part of the reorganisation,” the notice stated.

That number includes people who are being fired as well as those leaving voluntarily.

“In connection with the Departmental reorganisation first announced by the Secretary of State on April 22, 2025, the Department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities.

“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,” the notice added.

Foreign service officers who are given Reduction in Force (RIF) notices on Friday will be placed on administrative leave for 120 days before formally losing their jobs, according to the notice. Most civil servants will be placed on leave for 60 days before their firing takes effect, the notice said.

The RIFs, which have loomed over the agency for weeks, have left the workforce in limbo and demoralised as they wait for final notice about the fates of the careers to which many have devoted years or even decades of their lives.

Opponents of the cuts say they will take a toll at a time when the role of diplomats and foreign affairs experts is particularly important as the Trump administration tries to broker an end to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

There have also been sharp criticisms of the broader reorganisation, which includes sweeping changes to focus on the Trump administration’s priorities, such as reducing immigration to the US and promoting the administration’s worldview, with less emphasis on protecting and promoting human rights across the globe.

Trump administration officials have defended the reorganisation, arguing it was necessary to make the “bloated” agency more effective and aligned with the president’s priorities.

Rubio, on Thursday, said the reorganisation was being implemented in “probably in the most deliberate way of anyone that’s done one.”

(CNN)

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