Hiring/Retention

‘A better group of people’: A year after deep staffing cuts, HHS on track to grow its workforce

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said the department's new hires are more aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities.

Jory Heckman@jheckmanWFED
April 17, 2026 5:30 pm
5 min read

A year after making major cuts to its workforce, the Department of Health and Human Services is on track to exceed its previous headcount. ... HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. told members of the House Appropriations Committee that the department now has a headcount of 72,000 employees and plans to hire 12,000 new staff.

Last year, HHS laid off 10,000 employees. Another 10,000 employees accepted the deferred resignation program or early retirement offers. After these cuts, the department shrank down to 62,000 total full-time employees.

Kennedy said the department was ineffective in meeting its goals before the workforce reductions, and new hires are more aligned with the Trump administration’s priorities. ... “We will have made up all the employees that we lost, and we’ve replaced them with a better group of people who are actually going to address chronic health,” he told the subcommittee on labor, health and human services, education and related agencies on Thursday.

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“Morale is much better than it was a year ago. It was really at a nadir, during all the RIFs,” he added. ... Despite all this, Kennedy told lawmakers that last year’s workforce cuts were necessary “to change the culture at these agencies.” He said employees working at HHS were not aligned with his Make America Healthy Again agenda.

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Jory Heckman
Jory Heckman is a reporter at Federal News Network covering the Postal Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, IRS, big data and technology issues. Follow @jheckmanWFED