Federal workers are now back to working in the office at a higher percentage than their private sector counterparts, according to data released this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and reported by The Washington Times.

The April jobs report indicated that 81.8% of federal workers said they went into the office versus 79.2% in the private sector, the lowest level of teleworking for government workers since prior to the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020. Nearly 11% of private-sector employees worked “some hours” from home, compared to 8.5% of federal workers. The Labor Department study indicated 9.8% of private-sector employees “teleworked all hours” compared to 9.7% of federal workers.

Since the onset of the government downsizing by led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative, over 56,000 federal workers have been laid off, around 75,000 have accepted buyouts, and another 146,000 reductions planned in the weeks ahead, according to The New York Times. These huge numbers of workers will all be flooding an already stressed job market, making the prospect of finding a new job quickly unlikely and meaning that those who stick around are quick to fall in line with the new administration’s “return to work” mandate.

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