Government Executive, Workforce, Sean Michael Newhouse, Staff Reporter, April 9, 2025
Some public management experts are growing concerned that President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce have particularly affected early-career employees and that the federal government’s ability to attract younger talent could be damaged even past the current administration.
“We are not going to have the talent we need to continue to carry through with the business of our country,” said Michelle Amante, senior vice president of government programs at the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit that works to promote government effectiveness. “It will have devastating impacts as people continue to retire, either willfully or are being forced to retire. We're not going to have the new talent coming in, and we're going to lose institutional knowledge. So it's going to be very, very difficult for agencies to fulfill on their mission without the talent in hand.”