The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) federal workforce fell nearly 12% as the agency’s workload reached its highest level since the Cold War, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
NNSA’s federal workforce declined by 236 employees, from 1,991 in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 to 1,755 in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, GAO said in the Oct. 15 report. The reduction came as the agency oversees a roughly $200 billion, two-decade effort to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons and related infrastructure.
The workforce reduction followed presidential directives issued in early 2025, which led NNSA to halt workforce planning and curtail hiring, according to GAO. A government-wide hiring freeze ran from the second quarter of fiscal 2025 through the first quarter of fiscal 2026, although national security personnel were exempt and NNSA hired 35 federal employees during that period.
The agency’s workforce reductions disproportionately affected some mission-critical positions. NNSA lost nearly 14% of its mission-critical employees between the first quarter of fiscal 2025 and the second quarter of fiscal 2026, GAO found.
Some offices experienced even larger declines. NNSA’s Office of Environment, Safety and Health lost about 24% of its federal workforce, while the Office of Management and Budget lost about 22%. The Nevada Field Office and Los Alamos Field Office saw reductions of approximately 22% and 18%, respectively.
The reductions largely resulted from limited hiring and employee departures, primarily retirements and resignations. From fiscal 2023 through the second quarter of fiscal 2026, NNSA reported 669 employee separations and 540 hires.
The decline also reversed workforce growth that followed the elimination of a statutory cap on NNSA’s federal employees in fiscal 2023. The agency had added 129 employees before the subsequent reduction of 236 employees more than erased those gains.
NNSA officials told GAO that the agency has begun limited hiring to address remaining shortfalls.
