The U.S. federal government experienced a significant loss of highly trained scientific and medical professionals last year, as workforce reductions under President Donald Trump coincided with a wave of departures among employees holding doctoral degrees. While the overall contraction of the federal workforce affected hundreds of thousands of employees, data show that scientists and health experts left government service at a disproportionately high rate, raising concerns about the long-term impact on federal research and regulatory capacity.
According to employment figures released by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM), more than 10,100 federal employees with Ph.D. degrees in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), or health-related fields exited their roles between January 1 and November 30, 2025. That figure represents only a small percentage of the more than 335,000 federal workers who left government service during the same period. However, in the context of the federal scientific workforce, the losses were substantial, amounting to roughly 14% of all Ph.D.-level STEM and health professionals employed at the end of 2024.
Research Agencies Lose Talent Faster Than They Can Replace It
A closer examination of staffing trends across 14 major federal research agencies reveals the scale of the imbalance. Departures of doctoral-trained scientists and health experts far exceeded new hires, with agencies losing these professionals at a rate roughly 11 times higher than they were bringing them in. The result was a net loss of more than 4,200 Ph.D.-level employees across those agencies in less than a year.
The losses were not limited to headcount alone. The departing scientists collectively accounted for more than 106,600 years of accumulated federal service experience in 2025. That figure more than doubled the experience lost in 2024, when fewer than 4,600 Ph.D.-trained STEM and health employees left federal service over the same January-to-November timeframe. The data suggest that agencies are not only losing staff but also decades of institutional memory tied to scientific oversight, grant administration, environmental research, and public health programs.
Departures Increase Sharply After Change in Administration
Every agency reviewed in the analysis reported a higher number of Ph.D.-level departures in 2025 compared with 2024, before President Trump took office. On average, agencies lost about three times as many doctoral-trained STEM and health employees as they had the year before.
The National Institutes of Health recorded the largest number of departures, with more than 1,100 Ph.D.-holding employees leaving in 2025, compared with just over 400 the previous year. Other agencies saw especially steep percentage increases, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Forest Service. At the same time, hiring activity slowed sharply, with every agency bringing on significantly fewer Ph.D.-level scientists than in 2024.
Research-Driven Agencies Face Disproportionate Impact
While workforce reductions affected a wide range of federal employees, agencies with a strong research focus experienced the deepest losses among their most highly trained staff. The National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and U.S. Forest Service all saw their Ph.D. workforce shrink faster than their overall employee base.
The National Science Foundation was hit particularly hard. Between January and late November 2025, the agency lost a net total of 205 Ph.D.-trained STEM employees. That decline amounted to roughly 40% of NSF’s doctoral-level workforce at the end of 2024, marking the largest proportional loss among the agencies studied.
NSF has long stood out for employing a higher share of Ph.D.-trained scientists than any other federal agency. Near the end of the Biden administration, about 30% of its workforce held doctoral degrees. By November 2025, that figure had fallen to approximately 26%, reflecting the scale of the staffing shift.
Layoffs Play Limited Role in Overall Departures
Despite the widespread workforce contraction, formal reductions in force were not the primary driver behind most Ph.D.-level departures. Across most agencies, only a small fraction of exits were directly tied to RIF notices, and several agencies reported no such layoffs among STEM Ph.D. employees.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stood out as an exception. There, roughly 16% of the Ph.D.-trained STEM and health professionals who left in 2025 were affected by formal reductions in force. At most other agencies, RIF-related departures accounted for a much smaller share of exits.
Retirements, Resignations, and Position Eliminations
Most departures were attributed to retirements or voluntary resignations. While OPM categorizes these exits as voluntary, external pressures likely played a role in many decisions. These pressures included concerns about future job security, buyout offers, changes in agency missions, and disagreements with policy directions introduced under the Trump administration.
In some cases, employees left because their roles were eliminated altogether. At the National Science Foundation, nearly half of the Ph.D.-trained employees who departed in 2025 were academics serving in temporary rotational positions. The agency eliminated roughly three-quarters of those roles last year, significantly reducing its reliance on short-term academic expertise.
Understanding the Data Behind the Numbers
The findings are based on OPM’s monthly accessions and separations data, published in January 2025. The data include all federal civilian employees who retired, resigned, transferred, were dismissed, or left government service for any reason, as well as new hires and internal transfers into agencies.
Employees were classified as Ph.D.-level STEM or health professionals if they held a doctorate or postdoctoral degree and occupied positions designated as STEM or health occupations within OPM’s Enterprise Human Resources Integration system. Calculations of lost service time include civilian employment, creditable military service, and other qualifying federal service.
