Washington [US], July 11 : The State Department has begun firing over 1,300 personnel as part of a sweeping internal overhaul, CNN reported, citing an internal notice and a State Department official.
The mass layoffs, which began Friday, are part of the Trump administration's broader effort to restructure the federal government.
According to CNN, the terminations include 1,107 civil service employees and 246 foreign service officers. The agency is eliminating or altering hundreds of offices and bureaus as part of the reorganisation. Employees are being notified of their dismissals via email, the notice stated.
The move comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio was returning from an overseas trip to Malaysia. Rubio first announced the reorganisation on April 22, 2025, and seeks to streamline the State Department's domestic operations to align with the administration's diplomatic priorities, CNN reported.
"Nearly 3,000 members of the workforce will depart as part of the reorganisation," the internal notice said, according to CNN. This figure includes both those being terminated and employees leaving voluntarily.
The State Department said that the job cuts were focused on non-core functions, redundant offices, and areas where centralisation could boost efficiency.
Foreign service officers affected by the Reduction in Force (RIF) process will be placed on administrative leave for 120 days, while most civil servants will be on leave for 60 days before their departure becomes official, CNN reported.
The long-anticipated RIFs have left many employees in uncertainty. CNN noted that these changes come at a time when experienced diplomats are considered crucial, especially as the Trump administration engages in efforts to resolve ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Critics have also voiced concern over the broader restructuring plan, which aims to reduce immigration and promote the administration's worldview, with less focus on global human rights advocacy. Trump administration officials, however, argue the changes are necessary to reform what they call a "bloated" agency, CNN reported.
Rubio defended the restructuring, saying it was being carried out "probably in the most deliberate way of anyone that's done one." Meanwhile, a senior State Department official told CNN that no specific cost-saving figures were available but emphasised that the upcoming budget reflects "substantial savings."
The official said the RIF plan evaluated functions rather than individual performance. "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," the official told CNN. "It was personnel agnostic."
Foreign service officers, often highly trained and globally deployed, are being impacted if they were assigned to offices eliminated under the plan approved on May 29. However, the senior official said there are currently no plans to cut staff at overseas posts.
The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), the union representing diplomats, condemned the firings. Thomas Yazdgerdi, AFSA president and a career diplomat, told CNN that the layoffs are taking place "at a particularly bad time."
"There are horrible things that are happening in the world that require a tried-and-true diplomatic workforce that's able to address that," Yazdgerdi said. He warned that the firings would damage morale, recruitment, and retention.
In a statement released Friday, AFSA said, "In less than six months, the U.S. has shed at least 20 per cent of its diplomatic workforce through shuttering of institutions and forced resignations." The union criticised the layoffs as "untethered from merit or mission" and noted they were based on assignment location rather than service record or skills.
"We stand with the entire State Department workforce and with every American who understands that professional, non-partisan diplomacy is not expendable. It is essential," the statement said, as quoted by CNN.
The senior State Department official told CNN the agency aimed to conduct the layoffs "in a manner that preserves, to the maximum extent possible, the dignity of federal employees and foreign service officers and civil servants who are affected by this."