VA plans to trim 10,000 jobs this year, mostly from medical sites

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs leaders plan to trim about 10,000 full-time jobs from agency offices in 2025 after last year’s hiring focus led to a larger than expected workforce, budget planners said Monday.

The cuts represent about 2% of the total VA employee count of more than 458,000, the largest total in department history. VA has seen significant additions in staffing in recent years, adding more than 82,000 workers to the payroll since 2019.

Laura Duke, chief financial officer for the Veterans Health Administration, said officials are now looking to better balance that rapid growth. Most of the 10,000 cuts will come from medical care sites where retirements and departures were lower than expected last year.

“We brought on an adequate workforce to deliver the care that we anticipate handling in 2025,” she said. “So we now need a trimming back down, so we can continue to hire in certain priority care areas, such as mental health.”