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As President Donald Trump’s management throws government agencies one after another into “wooden chippers,” surprising statistics on federal workers continue to emerge. Only 6% of federal employees work full-time in the office.
Post-pandemic standards are surprisingly small, especially as major American companies move to bring workers back to offices five days a week.
That is not entirely true either.
If there are so many false facts and numbers that flood the public conversation zone, you might ask why it is worth grabbing one particular false claim. Last month we witnessed the sight of White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt. Elon Musk’s Government Efficiency and Business Budget Office “mistakes announced that it has discovered that there are 50 million taxpayer dollars. Doors to fund Gaza condoms.” Musk says X She shared a briefing video and said it was the tip of the iceberg. A few days later, the president doubled, saying his administration had prevented the delivery of $100 million “condoms to Hamas.”
The herd of fact artisans exposed these claims, pointing out: Records of the US International Development Agency showed that there is no such program for Gaza. The amount involved exceeded the institution’s global budget for purchasing condoms. And that means over a billion condoms for around one million Palestinian men living in Gaza.
It took me two weeks to deny the condom claim. “We make mistakes, but we act quickly to correct the mistake.”
See how the administration handled a rapidly debated, obviously wrong statement about how it works in its hometown. Correcting “mistakes” shows that it is far from standard practice these days for the White House or well-known Republicans.
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The 6% statistics plunged into public consciousness in early December last year when Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst released a report on federal workers with a provocative title. It’s not an office building. “Ernst had just been appointed co-chair of the Congressional Caucus, created to support Doge, and she has long been a voice critic of what she regards as wasted spending.
The claim was quickly picked up by the New York Post, commentator Sean Hannity and other Trump allies. Hannity said, “Doge’s Jobs: Only 6% of federal employees work full-time from the office, while some are not working at all: Audits.”
The post continued in an editorial a few hours later when a federal employee debated his “privilege” and asked, “How many people actually need the country?” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, “It’s ridiculous and it’s not something that the American people support.”
Musk retweeted his post story with over 200 million followers shortly after his appearance. He said it was even worse than the report found, claiming that if security and maintenance personnel were excluded, the number of government workers who appear in person and do 40 hours a week is close to 1%. He claims that he is. There is almost no one there.”
The 6% figure made me very unbelievable. I began my career at the Norfolk, Virginia newspaper home to the world’s largest naval base. I thought about the number of people needed to staff an aircraft carrier battle group for a deployment that lasts for months. After Norfolk, I spent years on national security. Given the limitations on the processing of classified information, it is rare for anyone at the Intelligence Reporting Agency, the State Department or the Pentagon to work from home.
I searched online for copies of the Ernst Report and quickly found a corridor that said “nearly a third of the government’s workforce is completely far away while 6% report full time.” . In the footnote, a single source: a story released by the Federal News Network, a news organization outside Washington that closely covers the world of government workers. The organization had invited readers to gather 6,338 people from a 2.2 million workforce of federal workers to answer online surveys on work habits. A talk of the survey by reporter Drew Friedman noted that only 6% of respondents reported working full-time in the office.
A day after Ernst released her report, the federal news network said Friedman’s story had been reworked, saying, “The investigation is an unscientific survey of respondents who self-reported themselves as current federal employees.” To be clear, I posted an editor’s note, and who was self-selected.’
The editors also added data from an August 2024 survey by the Office of Management and Budget, but found that 54% of the federal workforce must appear in the office every day. Research shows that only 10% of federal employees worked only from home. Those allowed to have a hybrid schedule will now spend an average of 60% of their working hours in the federal office.
In the world of journalism, this is how editors try to deal with terrible misreading of their work. Jared Serbu, assistant editor of the Federal News Network, said he and his colleagues had a clear, unscientific investigation of his organization, but somehow the definitive statistics about federal employees. He said he was surprised at how transformed he had changed.
“This was a survey of niche audiences for a niche audience,” Serb said. “No one has ever been confused about it before.”
Later in December, a TV report cited editor’s notes, labeling the 6% figure as “False.” Around the same time, Politifact labelled “Pants on Fire” after Johnson’s claim that only 1% of federal workers are showing up to work every day. A ridiculous claim. ”
That should end the conversation. But it didn’t.
On January 20th, on Trump’s first day in office, the White House issued a statement diagonally referring to Musk’s attacks on federal agencies. Trump said he is “planning to improve accountability for government officials.” Americans deserve the highest quality service from people who love our country. The president also brings federal workers back to work. This is because only 6% of employees are currently working in person. ”
A week later, senior managers cited 6% figures when explaining plans to reduce federal workers through acquisitions. “We’ve only been in office for Covid five years ago, with only 6% of federal employees,” authorities told Axios and NBC News. The quote also appeared in a memo sent by the White House to Republican allies, Daily Wire reported.
Elon Musk’s demolition crew
I asked Ernst spokesman Zach Kraft if the senator planned to correct records or to correct her report. He said neither was offshore.
“To set the record straight — if there are actually a large number of federal employees, it’s uncontroversial to bring them back to work,” Kraft said in an email. He pointed out that the bill introduced by Ernst requires federal managers to “take daily attendees, so everyone knows who is showing up at work and who isn’t.” did.
The White House did not answer my question as to why the January 20th statement cited a very clear rebuttal claim about federal workers. The portrayal of federal workers as lazy and lazy dols continues to be a central aspect of the president’s plan to cut government employment.
In Miami on Wednesday, Trump said federal workers should “see to actually work, just like everyone else in our country,” saying, “You’re not working at home.” Can’t. They’re not working. They’re playing tennis, playing golf, or doing other jobs. But they’re not working or certainly not working hard. ” (Several news outlets pointed out that Trump played golf during his nine days of his first 30 days in office.)
We live in a post fact society and it is said that everything is debate and that we are not told we are truly knowledgeable. I strongly disagree. Now, more than ever, facts are important, and Propublica continues to track how and how false statements are injected into important conversations about the future of this country.
