The hottest trend in Washington, DC, might be updating your résumé.
Elon Musk’s government efficiency commission has been tasked with cutting government spending, raising questions about the future of millions of jobs.
Business Insider’s Ayelet Sheffey and Madison Hoff have a breakdown of the number of employees and salaries at different government departments.
The average compensation for most departments was over $100,000, with the Department of Education topping the list ($144,561). Veterans Affairs was the largest employer — 486,522 workers — and more than double the second-biggest department (Homeland Security’s 222,539 employees).
The specifics on how the Department of Government Efficiency will operate still aren’t clear, but Vivek Ramaswamy, who is co-leading DOGE with Musk, has said entire federal agencies could be cut.
That might sound drastic, but some of the biggest areas of government spending are a lot harder to touch.
Social Security ($1.46 trillion) and Medicare ($874 billion) are considered mandatory spending, meaning they don’t require congressional approval each year and would require a major legislative push to make cuts or other changes. Cuts made there could also kick off a firestorm from the general public.
Musk also isn’t a stranger to taking big swings that others doubt are possible. When he acquired Twitter and cut 80% of the staff, many predicted it was the end of the app. More than two years later it’s still running and the center of public discourse.
But eliminating entire departments comes with its own set of challenges, write BI's Alice Tecotzky and John L. Dorman. DOGE will likely operate as an advisory group, without the powers to enact changes itself, experts told BI.
