One Year After DOGE Cuts, GSA Plans to Hire Hundreds of Federal Employees to Rebuild Capacity

The US General Services Administration (GSA) is planning to hire hundreds of employees, marking a significant reversal from the mass layoffs orchestrated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) just one year ago.

According to WIRED, the hiring push reflects a growing recognition that the aggressive workforce reductions exceeded sustainable levels. GSA manages the federal government's real estate portfolio, procurement systems, and IT infrastructure — functions that proved difficult to maintain with severely reduced staffing.

The reversal mirrors patterns seen across multiple federal agencies where DOGE-related cuts initially exceeded targets, only to be partially reversed as essential services deteriorated. Agencies including the IRS, FAA, and EPA have all faced similar cycles of cuts followed by emergency rehiring.

Federal employee unions have pointed to the GSA's hiring plans as evidence that the original DOGE reductions were poorly planned. "You can't just fire your way to efficiency when you're running the world's largest bureaucracy," said a representative from the American Federation of Government Employees.

The GSA's experience has become a case study in the challenges of applying private-sector downsizing logic to government operations, where many functions have no private-sector equivalent and institutional knowledge takes years to rebuild.