What's the difference between a FEMA CORE and PFT position?

PFT (permanent full-time) positions are standard career federal jobs with full FERS coverage and RIF protections. CORE positions (Cadre of On-call Response/Recovery Employees) are term appointments tied to disaster funding, typically 2 to 4 years, renewable but expirable without RIF procedures. Both get FEHB and TSP, but job security differs sharply.

What happens to current FEMA employees during hurricane season with fewer staff?

Expect higher deployment tempo. An earlier GAO review found only 12% of FEMA's incident management workforce was available for deployment as of June 2025, which means the remaining cadre deploys more often and for longer. Deployment pay mechanics, overtime, and premium pay caps become more important to understand.

GAO: FEMA Lost 4,300 Staff in a Year, With No Workforce Plan

Q: How many employees has FEMA actually lost?

GAO-26-108427 documents over 4,300 separations in FY2025 alone, a 55% jump over FY2024. Media summaries put the total loss at roughly 4,500 over the 18 months through early 2026, taking the workforce from about 25,800 in early 2025 to around 21,000 by April 2026. A widely shared 6,400 figure does not appear in the GAO report.

Q: What did GAO say FEMA did wrong?

The core finding is process, not just headcount: FEMA made its workforce reduction decisions without conducting workforce analysis, and it rescinded its strategic plan in 2025 without replacing it. GAO found the agency cannot show its remaining staffing matches its mission requirements heading into hurricane season.

Q: Is FEMA hiring again?

Yes, on a limited basis. The hiring freeze was lifted in May 2026 with about 300 positions authorized immediately and up to 700 openings targeted in the following months. That backfills only a fraction of the 4,300-plus FY2025 separations.

Last Updated: August 9, 2026 Reading Time: 8 min

A new GAO report says FEMA shed more than 4,300 employees in fiscal 2025, a 55 percent jump in departures, and made those cuts without the workforce analysis federal guidance requires. Here's what GAO-26-108427 actually found, what it means if you work at FEMA, and what it means if you're thinking about a FEMA job while the agency tries to hire during hurricane season.

What the Report Actually Documents

The report, "FEMA Workforce: Staff Reductions and Lack of Planning May Impact Mission Readiness," published August 4, 2026, is the second GAO look at FEMA staffing in a year, and the harder-hitting one. The numbers it verifies:

Measure	Verified figure
FY2025 separations	4,300+
FY2025 vs FY2024 departures	+55%
Average FY2025 workforce	~25,134
Workforce as of April 2026	~21,000
SES departures in one year	58 (vs ~13/year historically)
Regional office losses	9%+ in most regions

One number you may have seen elsewhere doesn't hold up: a claim that FEMA lost 6,400-plus employees. That figure isn't in the GAO report. The defensible numbers are 4,300-plus FY2025 separations and roughly 4,500 total over 18 months.

The Finding That Matters More Than the Headcount

Agencies shrink all the time. What GAO flagged as the real risk is how this one shrank. FEMA rescinded its strategic plan in 2025 and never issued a new one. It made reduction decisions without the workforce analysis OPM guidance calls for. The result, in GAO's framing, is that FEMA cannot demonstrate its remaining staff matches its mission, right as hurricane season peaks.

That's why the recommendations read like a planning checklist: issue a new strategic plan, run formal workforce analysis, align staffing plans to it, and have Congress require FEMA to report on workforce planning before each hurricane season. DHS agreed with all of them, while noting that progress depends partly on Senate confirmation of a permanent FEMA administrator. Every recommendation remains open.

If You Work at FEMA Now

Deployment tempo is the pressure point. The earlier GAO review found just 12 percent of the incident management workforce was available to deploy as of June 2025. Fewer available responders means longer and more frequent deployments for those who remain. It's worth getting precise about your deployment entitlements: overtime rules, premium pay caps, and how sustained deployments interact with your leave balance.

Regional staffing lost the most. With most regions down 9 percent or more, workload concentration is heaviest outside headquarters. If your position sits in a shrunken regional office, document your expanded duties; that record matters for grade reviews and for any future restructuring decisions.

Leadership churn cuts both ways. Fifty-eight SES departures in a year gutted institutional memory, but it also opens promotion lanes that were closed for a decade. Mid-career employees willing to stay through the turbulence are advancing faster than the historical norm.

If You're Considering a FEMA Job

FEMA's freeze lifted in May 2026, with roughly 300 immediate authorizations and up to 700 more targeted. Before you apply, understand which appointment type you're taking:

	PFT (permanent full-time)	CORE (on-call response/recovery)
Appointment	Career, permanent	Term, typically 2-4 years, tied to disaster funds
RIF protections	Full	None at term expiration
FERS retirement	Yes	Yes, while appointed
FEHB / TSP	Yes	Yes
Deployment expectation	Position-dependent	High by design

A CORE offer is a real federal job with real benefits, but its security runs on disaster appropriations and renewal decisions, not career tenure. Anyone weighing a CORE term against a permanent role elsewhere should price that difference honestly.

Two GAO Reports, One Accelerating Story

If the numbers feel familiar, it's because this is GAO's second pass. A September 2025 review covered just the first five months of 2025 and found a roughly 2,450-person decline plus the 12 percent deployment-availability figure. The new report extends the window through FY2025 and finds the pace accelerating rather than stabilizing: 4,300-plus separations for the full fiscal year against a 25,134-person average workforce, which means FEMA turned over about one in six employees in twelve months.

The FEMA workforce also isn't one thing, and the losses didn't land evenly. Permanent full-time staff run headquarters and steady-state programs. CORE employees, funded by disaster appropriations, carry much of the recovery workload. Reservists deploy on demand. The GAO's concern is that without workforce analysis, nobody at FEMA can say which of those categories lost the capabilities that matter most, or whether the 700 planned hires target the right ones.

What Comes Next

Watch three things through the fall: whether a permanent administrator is confirmed (DHS tied its own implementation timeline to it), whether Congress adopts GAO's pre-season reporting requirement, and whether the 700 targeted hires actually post. A fourth signal sits outside FEMA: the government-wide pattern GAO keeps finding, of cuts made before analysis, is the same one documented at other agencies this year, and it is shaping how quickly any of them can rebuild.

Know Your Numbers If Restructuring Reaches You

Federal employees at any agency in a downsizing cycle should know two figures cold: what a separation would pay, and what their pension is worth today. The free Severance Calculator estimates the first, and the FERS Retirement Calculator answers the second in about two minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many employees has FEMA actually lost?

Over 4,300 separations in FY2025 per GAO, roughly 4,500 over 18 months per media summaries of the report, from about 25,800 down to 21,000. The circulating 6,400 figure isn't in the GAO report.

What did GAO say FEMA did wrong?

It cut without analyzing. Reductions proceeded with no workforce analysis and no strategic plan in place, leaving FEMA unable to show its staffing matches its mission.

Is FEMA hiring again?

Yes: the freeze lifted in May 2026, with ~300 authorized positions and up to 700 targeted. That's a partial backfill at best.

What's the difference between CORE and PFT?

PFT is a permanent career appointment with RIF protections. CORE is a term appointment tied to disaster funding, renewable but expirable without RIF procedures. Benefits are comparable while employed; security is not.

What does hurricane season look like with fewer staff?

Higher deployment tempo for everyone left. With only 12% of the incident workforce deployable at the last measurement, expect longer rotations and more of them.

Federal Workforce at Its Lowest Since the 1960s: The government-wide headcount picture
The Occupation Replacement Gap: Who left and who was never backfilled
Federal Rehiring After the Cuts: How agencies are rebuilding
What Each DRP Resignation Cost: The dollars behind the departures

Sources: GAO-26-108427, Federal News Network, GovExec, FEMA/DHS responses as documented in the GAO report.