Connect with us

Business

America will see its largest mass resignation in history as 100,000 federal workers are set to quit their jobs today

Published

on



Today, America will experience its largest mass resignation in history, as 100,000 federal workers are set to formally quit their jobs. It’s a result of the Trump administration’s “fork in the road” Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) that staffers have taken up over previous months, who were allowed to transfer their workload and go on administrative leave until the official end date of federal service on September 30 2025. 

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) tells Fortune that about 154,000 federal workers in total took the deal, with the majority leaving today and others exiting by the end of year. 

It claims that the large-scale cut will save about $28 billion annually by lowering long-term spending. OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover tells Fortune that the administration delivered on its end of the employment bargain, and that no previous administration has been “even close to saving American taxpayers this amount of money in such a short amount of time.” A Senate analysis from July reports that the DRP program was set to cost $14.8 billion to pay the wages and benefits of around 200,000 federal workers taking up to eight months of leave.

“Ultimately, the deferred resignation program was not only legal, it provided over 150,000 civil servants a dignified and generous departure from the federal government. It also delivered incredible relief to the American taxpayer,” Pinover says. 

The resignations are taking effect as Congress faces a deadline today to authorize more funding, or risk a U.S. government shutdown. If no deal is reached, then the White House has instructed federal agencies—already rocked by Elon Musk’s DOGE layoffs since January—to make way for even larger cuts. 

This year’s decline of 300,000 federal workers—a stark contrast to white-collar employees ‘job-hugging’

The U.S. federal workforce has been shrinking since President Trump retook office this January. His administration has been adamant on reducing inefficiencies, setting up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) helmed by Tesla CEO Musk, which originally promised to oversee an elimination of $2 trillion in government waste, fraud, and abuse. Musk later reassessed his estimate down to $150 billion. 

In February, two million U.S. government employees received an email from OPM detailing options for them to resign. The message was titled “a fork in the road”—a term tied to the DRP plan; The same subject line Musk sent out to workers when he took over the social media platform Twitter, now called “X.” The message to federal staffers offered employees the option to step down and receive payment through the end of September, when the resignation goes into effect. In the meantime, virtually all USAID employees were laid off, after thousands had already been let go due to the administration’s foreign aid freeze. 

But USAID wasn’t the only government agency that was hit by layoffs. Workers in DEI-related roles were also put on paid leave to eventually be let go, and Musk also targeted the Treasury Department. The Partnership of Public Service estimated that DOGE could cost taxpayers roughly $135 billion to fire, re-hire, and put employees on leave. In just the first five months of this year, the federal government was slimmed down by about 59,000 employees, and there’s a collective estimate that there will be about 300,000 fewer government workers by the end of this year. It’s the biggest federal workforce reduction in a single year since WWII. This includes a combination of laid-off employees, probationary staffers, alongside those who took the resignation deal. 

The mass resignation is in stark contrast to white-collar employees “job-hugging,” but their willingness to leave may be in part to the corroding work atmosphere at federal agencies. Since DOGE’s swift job cuts, government staffers have described an environment of “fear” and “madness,” with one employee at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) telling The Guardian that the buyout emails were “clearly designed to disturb and scare people, among all of the things they actually say, which are clear threats.” For some, choosing to resign was an option to not prolong the anxiety of a probable firing, while being able to take advantage of the deal and look for private-sector work.

“I am concerned we will all be mass fired,” a U.S. Department of Transportation staffer, who was put on a probationary term appointment, told The Guardian in February. “Teams would be hobbled and gutted. It would be like closing your eyes and randomly throwing acid on a flower garden. You would just have dead spots, and no planning for which ones.”

Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.



Source link

Continue Reading

Business

SpaceX sets $800 billion valuation, confirms 2026 IPO plans

Published

on



SpaceX is moving forward with an insider share sale that values Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at about $800 billion, setting up what could be the largest initial public offering of all time.

In a company message seen by Bloomberg on Friday, SpaceX said it’s preparing for a possible public offering in 2026 that would be aimed at funding an “insane flight rate” for its developmental Starship rocket, artificial intelligence data centers in space and a base on the moon.

The per-share price of $421 in its latest secondary offering, laid out by Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen in the memo to shareholders, is nearly double the $212 a share set in July at a $400 billion valuation.

The valuation vaults past the previous record of $500 billion that ChatGPT owner OpenAI set in October, making SpaceX once again the world’s most valuable closely held company. 

If Musk decides to proceed with the IPO, it would be another splashy venture for him, but it would hinge on a series of ambitious and risky plans that SpaceX would have to pull off in the coming years.

Subscribe Now: The Business of Space newsletter delivers the inside stories of investments beyond Earth, from satellite networks to moon landings.

SpaceX is moving ahead with plans for an IPO that would seek to raise significantly more than $30 billion in a transaction that would make it the biggest listing of all time, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.

The Musk-led company is targeting a valuation of about $1.5 trillion for the entire company, which would leave SpaceX near the market value that Saudi Aramco established during its record 2019 listing. 

Read More: SpaceX’s Lofty IPO Valuation Hinges on Big Bet on Outsize Growth 

The timing of the IPO and the corresponding valuation is uncertain, and the company may decide not to move forward, Johnsen said in the email. 

A representative for SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The company does tender offers twice a year, giving shareholders including employees the chance to cash in or buy more shares. In this case, SpaceX has set its fair market valuation in a precursor to an IPO next year.

Read More: SpaceX IPO Plan Puts $2.9 Trillion of Listings on the Table

The world’s most prolific rocket launcher, SpaceX dominates the space industry with its Falcon 9 rocket that lifts satellites and people to orbit.

SpaceX is also the industry leader in providing internet services from low-Earth orbit through Starlink, a system of thousands of satellites that serves millions of customers.



Source link

Continue Reading

Business

Trump couldn’t insult his way to victory in Indiana redistricting battle

Published

on



If Indiana Republican senators had any doubt about what to do with President Donald Trump’s redistricting proposal, he helped them make up their minds the night before this week’s vote.

In a social media screed, Trump accused the state’s top senator of being “a bad guy, or a very stupid one.”

“That kind of language doesn’t help,” said Sen. Travis Holdman, a banker and lawyer from near Fort Wayne who voted against the plan.

He was among 21 Republican senators who dealt Trump one of the most significant political defeats of his second term by rejecting redistricting in Indiana. The decision undermined the president’s national campaign to redraw congressional maps to boost his party’s chances in the upcoming midterm elections.

In interviews after Thursday’s vote, several Republican senators said they were leaning against the plan from the start because their constituents didn’t like it. But in a Midwest nice rebuttal to America’s increasingly coarse political discourse, some said they simply didn’t like the president’s tone, like when he called senators “suckers.”

“I mean, that’s pretty nasty,” said Sen. Jean Leising, a farm owner from Oldenburg who works at her daughter’s travel agency.

Trump didn’t seem to get the message. Asked about the vote, the president once again took aim at Indiana’s top senator, Rodric Bray.

“He’ll probably lose his next primary, whenever that is,” Trump said. “I hope he does, because he’s done a tremendous disservice.”

Sen. Sue Glick, an attorney from La Grange who also opposed redistricting, brushed off Trump’s threat to unseat lawmakers who defied him.

“I would think he would have better things to do,” she said. “It would be money better spent electing the individuals he wants to represent his agenda in Congress.”

Trump struggled to get traction in Indiana

The president tried to brush off the defeat, telling reporters he “wasn’t working on it very hard.”

But the White House had spent months engaged in what Republican Sen. Andy Zay described as “a full-court press.”

Vice President JD Vance met with senators twice in Indiana and once in Washington. White House aides frequently checked in over the phone.

Holdman said the message behind the scenes was often more soothing than Trump’s social media attacks.

“We were getting mixed messages,” he said. “Two days before the vote, they wanted to declare a truce on Sen. Bray. And the next day, there’s a post on Truth Social that didn’t sound like truce language to me.”

Some of Trump’s other comments caused backlash too. For example, he described Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as “retarded,” which upset Sen. Mike Bohacek because his daughter has Down syndrome. Bohacek had been skeptical of redistricting and decided to vote no in response.

The White House did not respond to questions about outreach to senators, but it distanced itself from conservative allies who claimed Trump had threatened to withhold money from the state.

“President Trump loves the great state of Indiana,” said spokesman Davis Ingle, who insisted Trump “has never threatened to cut federal funding and it’s 100% fake news to claim otherwise.”

Regardless, Trump had struggled to get traction despite months of pressure.

Holdman said he turned down an invitation to the White House last month because he had a scheduling conflict.

“Plus, by then it was a little too late,” he said.

Leising said she missed a call from a White House official the day before a vote while she was in a committee meeting. She didn’t try to call back because she wasn’t going to change her mind.

Mitch Daniels, a former Indiana governor and a Republican, had a straightforward explanation for what happened.

“Folks in our state don’t react well to being bullied,” he said.

Daniels’ successor as governor, Mike Pence, fielded calls from senators during the redistricting debate, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity to disclose private conversations.

The person declined to describe Pence’s advice. Pence has been at odds with Trump ever since he, while serving as his vice president, refused to help Trump overturn his election defeat to Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.

Senators said their voters didn’t want new districts

Some Republicans lashed out at senators for defying Trump.

“His life was threatened — and he was nearly assassinated,” Indiana Lieutenant Gov. Micah Beckwith wrote on social media. “All for what? So that Indiana politicians could grow timid.”

The message to the president, Beckwith said, was “go to hell.”

But senators who opposed redistricting said they were just listening to their constituents. Some believed the unusual push to redraw districts was the equivalent of political cheating. Others didn’t like that Washington was telling Indiana what to do.

The proposed map would have divided Indianapolis into four pieces, grafting pieces of the city onto other districts to dilute the influence of Democratic voters. But in small towns near the borders with Kentucky and Ohio, residents feared the state’s biggest metropolitan area would gain influence at their expense.

“Constituents just didn’t want it,” Holdman said.

During Thursday’s vote on the Senate floor, some Republicans seemed torn about their decision.

Sen. Greg Goode, who is from Terre Haute, said he had spoken twice to Trump on the phone while weighing the redistricting plan. He declared his “love” for the president but decried “over-the-top pressure.”

Goode said he wouldn’t vote for the proposal.

“I’m confident my vote reflects the will of my constituents,” he said.



Source link

Continue Reading

Business

Wisconsin couple’s ACA health plan soars from $2 a month to $1,600 as subsidies expire

Published

on



For one Wisconsin couple, the loss of government-sponsored health subsidies next year means choosing a lower-quality insurance plan with a higher deductible. For a Michigan family, it means going without insurance altogether.

For a single mom in Nevada, the spiking costs mean fewer Christmas gifts this year. She is stretching her budget already while she waits to see if Congress will act.

Less than three weeks remain until the expiration of COVID-era enhanced tax credits that have helped millions of Americans pay their monthly fees for Affordable Care Act coverage for the past four years.

The Senate on Thursday rejected two proposals to address the problem and an emerging health care package from House Republicans does not include an extension, all but guaranteeing that many Americans will see much higher insurance costs in 2026.

Here are a few of their stories.

From a gold plan to a bronze plan, a couple spends more on less

Chad Bruns comes from a family of savers. That came in handy when the 58-year-old military veteran had to leave his firefighting career early because of arm and back injuries he incurred on the job.

He and his wife, Kelley, 60, both retirees, cut their own firewood to reduce their electricity costs in their home in Sawyer County, Wisconsin. They rarely eat out and hardly ever buy groceries unless they are on sale.

But to the extent that they have always been frugal, they will be forced to be even more so now, Bruns said. That is because their coverage under the health law enacted under former President Barack Obama is getting more expensive -– and for worse coverage.

This year, the Brunses were paying $2 per month for a top-tier gold-level plan with less than a $4,000 deductible. Their income was low enough to help them qualify for a lot of financial assistance.

But in 2026, that same plan is rising to an unattainable $1,600 per month, forcing them to downgrade to a bronze plan with a $15,000 deductible.

Kelley Bruns said she is concerned that if something happens to their health in the next year, they could go bankrupt. While their monthly fees are low at about $25, their new out-of-pocket maximum at $21,000 amounts to nearly half their joint income.

“We have to pray that we don’t have to have surgery or don’t have to have some medical procedure done that we’re not aware of,” she said. “It would be very devastating.”

Family facing higher costs prepares to go without insurance

Dave Roof’s family of four has been on ACA insurance since the program started in 2014. Back then, the accessibility of insurance on the marketplace helped him feel comfortable taking the leap to start a small music production and performance company in his hometown of Grand Blanc, Michigan. His wife, Kristin, is also self-employed as a top seller on Etsy.

The coverage has worked for them so far, even when emergencies come up, such as an ATV accident their 21-year-old daughter had last year.

But now, with the expiration of subsidies that kept their premiums down, the 53-year-old Roof said their $500 per month insurance plan is jumping to at least $700 a month, along with spiking deductibles and out-of-pocket costs.

With their joint income of about $75,000 a year, that increase is not manageable, he said. So, they are planning to go without health insurance next year, paying cash for prescriptions, checkups and anything else that arises.

Roof said his family is already living cheaply and has not taken a vacation together since 2021. As it is, they do not save money or add it to their retirement accounts. So even though forgoing insurance is stressful, it is what they must do.

“The fear and anxiety that it’s going to put on my wife and I is really hard to measure,” Roof said. “But we can’t pay for what we can’t pay for.”

Single mom strains her January budget in hopes Congress acts soon

If you ask Katelin Provost, the American middle class has gone from experiencing a squeeze to a “full suffocation.”

The 37-year-old social worker in Henderson, Nevada, counts herself in that category. As a single mom, she already keeps a tight budget to cover housing, groceries and day care for her 4-year-old daughter.

Next year, that is going to be even tougher.

The monthly fee on her plan is going up from $85 to nearly $750. She decided she is going to pay that higher cost for January and reevaluate afterward, depending on whether lawmakers extends the subsidies, which as of now appears unlikely. She hopes they will.

If Congress does not act, she will drop herself off the health insurance and keep it only for her daughter because she cannot afford the higher fee for the two of them over the long term.

The strain of one month alone is enough to have an impact.

“I’m going to have to reprioritize the next couple of months to rebalance that budget,” Provost said. “Christmas will be much smaller.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © Miami Select.