The federal work force is facing a sharp reduction after President Trump’s Office of Personnel Management ordered agencies to terminate most of an estimated 200,000 workers still in their probationary period. The cuts primarily target employees who have been in their roles for less than two years and do not enjoy as much job protection.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday intensified its sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, the nation’s largest employer, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection — potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of workers.

Some 2,300 people have been laid off at the U.S. Interior Department as part of the Trump administration's sweeping government job cuts, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The Interior Department manages around 500 million acres of U.