Countdown to quit: thousands of US federal workers accept Musk’s ‘buyout’ offer

More than 20,000 employees – about 1 per cent of the US federal workforce – have signed up for an offer to quit their jobs in exchange for a deferred resignation deal that would have taxpayers continue to pay their salaries through the end of September.

But those numbers are increasing every day, according to an official familiar with the data, and the Trump administration expects a spike in resignations as employees near Thursday’s deadline to accept the offer.

That target could be difficult to meet. There are nearly 2.3 million civilian federal employees, but perhaps half of those – including civilian defence and intelligence employees, postmen, law enforcement personnel and certain other sensitive positions – are ineligible for the offer.

Those 20,000 employees could also include many people who were already planning to retire in the coming months. An average of 62,000 federal workers have retired each year over the past decade, according to data provided by the US Office of Personnel Management. Some 298,000 employees will become eligible for retirement within the next two years.