DRP Report Card: 20,557 Backfills, Hired 1.4 Grades Lower

Last Updated: September 16, 2026 Reading Time: 7 min

The government paid roughly $15 billion for about 140,000 employees to leave under the Deferred Resignation Program. A new Partnership for Public Service analysis answers the question nobody in the administration wanted quantified: how many of those jobs came back? The DRP backfill count: 20,557 positions refilled by June 2026, at an average of 1.4 GS grades below the people who left.

What the Partnership Actually Measured

The Partnership for Public Service matched USAJOBS postings against DRP departures by occupational series and component through June 2026. Where an agency posted a job in the same series a DRP participant vacated, that counted as a backfill. The result: 20,557 positions, published August 20 in the Partnership's "Inside the chaos of the Deferred Resignation Program" analysis.

One attribution note, because precision matters here: the Partnership published the 20,557 count. The 14.7 percent rate is a FedTools calculation, dividing that count by OPM's official 139,928 DRP participant figure. GovExec and Federal News Network covered the report in late August; neither ran the percentage or the dollar math below.

The Grade Gap, Priced Out

The finding with lasting payroll consequences is not the count. It is the compression: replacement hires came in an average of 1.4 GS grades below the employees they replaced. For the FBI's criminal investigator series, the gap was 3.1 grades.

FedTools 2026 illustration using the OPM 2026 GS base table, Step 1 to Step 1, no locality, linear interpolation of the 1.4-grade average. Rounded once, at the end. This is a scenario, not observed savings: the Partnership's average does not tell us each position's grade, step, locality, or the actual replacement grade. Most departing employees sat above Step 1 and locality adds 15 to 34 percent on top, so the per-position gap is understated in one direction and the government-wide total is unknowable in the other.

If every one of the 20,557 backfilled positions matched the GS-11 scenario, the annual base-payroll reduction would be about $162 million; at the GS-12 scenario, about $308 million. Treat those as bounding scenarios, not a measured saving.

$162 to $308 Million a Year Against a Multibillion-Dollar Bill

That savings scenario needs a denominator, and there are two that do not measure the same thing. Public Citizen estimated the DRP's administrative-leave cost at $11.1 billion to $15.1 billion in salary and benefits, which works out to roughly $108,000 per participant on Public Citizen's own count of about 139,600 participants. GAO's September 15, 2026 report (GAO-26-108477) estimated, for the agencies it reviewed and salary only, that about $6.7 billion of the $9.5 billion spent on paid administrative leave in 2025 "was associated with deferred resignation program." The two figures use different populations, periods, and cost definitions, so they are not endpoints of one range. Against the $162 million to $308 million scenarios above, the payroll math alone would need roughly 22 to 41 years to offset GAO's $6.7 billion and 49 to 93 years to offset Public Citizen's $15.1 billion. Either way, the backfill savings are a rounding error next to the leave bill.

The honest version of the story cuts both ways. OPM Director Kupor's response to the Partnership's report argues occupational series are "too broad to serve as a proxy for backfills" and that the analysis "likely significantly overstates actual backfills." He also flips the frame: if only 14.7 percent came back, then 85 percent of the reductions are real and lasting. Both readings sit on the same data. What Kupor's response does not dispute is the 1.4-grade figure, which he quotes back directly.

Against the full separation universe, the backfills are 5.4 percent. Against DRP departures specifically, 14.7 percent. Which denominator you cite changes the story, so cite both.

What This Means If You Took the DRP, or Stayed

If you left: agencies are actively hiring in many vacated series, typically a grade or more below where you sat. If you are weighing a return, search your former series on USAJOBS and check the posted grade before assuming you would re-enter at your old level. Our occupation replacement gap analysis tracks which series are refilling fastest.

If you stayed: grade compression on backfills is a preview of promotion-ladder math at your agency. A workforce refilled at lower grades means more competition per promotion slot in the middle grades over the next several years. Use the free GS Pay Calculator to price the grade difference in your own locality, the same math that turns 1.4 grades into a five-figure annual gap.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many DRP departures have been backfilled?

20,557 same-series positions by June 2026, per the Partnership for Public Service's USAJOBS analysis. That is about 14.7 percent of OPM's official 139,928 DRP participants (FedTools calculation).

What does "1.4 GS grades lower" mean in dollars?

In a Step 1, no-locality scenario, about $7,900 (GS-11) to $15,000 (GS-12) per year less in base pay per position, or $162 million to $308 million per year if every backfilled slot matched that scenario. With locality pay the per-position gap is larger; the true government-wide total is not measurable from the average alone.

Does OPM dispute the backfill numbers?

Director Kupor disputes the series-matching method as too broad and says it likely overstates backfills, while arguing the same data proves 85 percent of reductions are lasting. He does not dispute the grade gap.

How does the backfill number compare to total federal separations?

GAO counted ~378,000 separations and ~127,000 hires across 22 agencies through January 2026. Backfills are 5.4 percent of all separations, 14.7 percent of DRP departures specifically.

Were DRP-vacated jobs filled before the employee even left?

In some cases, yes. The Partnership for Public Service counted 8,642 hires into DRP-vacated subcomponents and occupational series that happened while the departing employee was still on the rolls. That is a separate metric from the 20,557 same-series backfills and from the 1.4-grade gap, which was measured on the backfill set, not on these concurrent hires.

Related Resources

• DRP Cost Per Employee: The $117K Question: The administrative-leave bill this analysis prices against.
• Federal Occupation Replacement Gap: Which series are refilling and which are staying empty.
• Is Your Agency Next? RIF Risk Ranking: Where continued reductions are most likely.
• GS Pay Calculator: Price any grade gap in your locality.

Sources: GAO-26-108477, Deferred Resignation Program Largely Responsible for Sixfold Increase in Paid Administrative Leave Salary Costs (Sept 15, 2026) · Partnership for Public Service, "Inside the chaos of the Deferred Resignation Program" · GovExec coverage · OPM Director response (Secrets of OPM) · OPM 2026 GS base pay table