The U.S. State Department has begun large-scale layoffs, with the first batch firing more than 1,350 employees, including 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign affairs personnel working domestically.
The State Council pointed out in the notice sent to the laid-off employees that this round of layoffs was carefully planned and only targets non-core functions, duplicated offices, or redundancies within the State Council.
According to Reuters, the U.S. State Department has about 18,000 employees working domestically, with nearly 3,000 eventually to be laid off, including voluntary departures.