Fewer federal employees are ‘thriving’ and more are ‘struggling’, according to new survey

The percentage of federal employees who are classified as “thriving” decreased by 10 points between 2024 and 2025, according to a recent report from Gallup, which sheds light on how civil servants are reacting to cuts and other reforms that President Donald Trump has made to agencies since the start of his second term. 

By taking the average of responses from quarterly surveys conducted respectively in both years, the analytics firm found that the percentage of “thriving” feds dropped from 58% in 2024 to 48% in 2025. 

“All major segments of the U.S. workforce experienced a worsening outlook on their lives since 2022; however, federal government employees stand out for the severity and speed of their decline,” researchers wrote. 

While the “thriving” rate for federal employees held steady at around 60% from 2022 to 2024, the latest data puts them on par with the average for U.S. workers in general, which also stood at 48% in 2025. That broader group, however, saw a smaller decline, going from 51% in 2024. 

Gallup also shared data with Government Executive that shows, between quarter four of 2024 and the same period in 2025, the percentage of feds who were classified as “struggling” increased from 37% to 47% and those determined to be “suffering” went from 3% to 5%. 

Researchers classified respondents as “thriving,” “struggling” or “suffering” based on how they rated their current and future life on a 0-10 scale. The data comes from quarterly online surveys of adult U.S. workers. Gallup used probability-based, random sampling methods to recruit participants, and the sample size of the polls ranged from around 19,000 to roughly 23,000 individuals. 

The Office of Personnel Management in 2025 did not conduct the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, with officials saying that changes were necessary to the annual poll of the government workforce in order to comply with Trump’s anti-diversity executive orders. 

In response, the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan good government group, developed its own survey of more than 10,000 current feds. It found that all 30 agencies represented in the poll experienced decreases from their 2024 FEVS scores; although, Partnership officials acknowledged that the results are not directly comparable because OPM’s survey includes significantly more respondents.