Telework numbers collapse after Trump mandate

(The Daily Signal) – The number of federal employees who telework fell by nearly three-quarters in fiscal 2025, the year President Donald Trump ordered the government back to the office, according to an Office of Personnel Management report sent to Congress on Monday and obtained exclusively by the Daily Signal. The report provides the clearest insight yet into how Trump’s mandate impacted the federal government. 

Just 273,497 federal employees reported teleworking during the fiscal year 2025 reporting period, down from 1,017,230 the year before, according to the report. That means about 12% of the workforce currently remains out of the office.

“This is a fundamental reset of how the federal workforce shows up every day to serve the public,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told the Daily Signal in a statement.

Trump’s “Return to In-Person Work” memorandum directed agencies to end remote work and have employees return to their desks full-time. It was one of the many executive orders Trump signed on his first day back in office.

“Telework has not disappeared, nor should it. It remains a legitimate tool when a clear mission need exists: continuity of operations, severe weather and other emergencies, reasonable accommodation, and other limited and compelling circumstances,” Kupor wrote in the report, obtained by the Daily Signal. “The distinction is simple. In-person work is the norm. Telework is the exception, granted deliberately and justified by mission, not by convenience or habit.”

At the Department of War, more than 400,000 employees are eligible for teleworking, but just 8% are working from home. The State Department has roughly 16,000 employees eligible to work from home, and 13% are doing some sort of remote work. The Department of Homeland Security has 76,076 employees able to work remotely, but just 4% are teleworking.

“The results matter because policy is only as good as its execution. Agency leaders reviewed every work arrangement, rescinded agreements that no longer served a mission purpose, and realigned daily operations with the President’s memorandum,” Kupor wrote in the report.