How many newly hired IRS employees in Missouri might face government layoffs?
The Internal Revenue Service is expected to lay off approximately 1,000 Kansas City area employees this week. Here is the Missouri IRS workforce by the numbers.
IRS leaders said that probationary employees would be let go, though the agency hadn’t confirmed exact numbers, according to the local chapter president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Shannon Ellis.
The anticipated layoffs come in the middle of tax season, as thousands of federal workers in numerous departments across the country have been fired or laid off since President Donald Trump took office in January.
The IRS Careers site was down for maintenance as of midday Wednesday, Feb. 19.
The agency, with approximately 6,000 workers, is the second largest federal employer in Missouri, after the Veterans Health Administration with approximately 10,500 employees. There are seven taxpayer assistance center offices around the state.
Data comes from the federal Office of Personnel Management and comes from the most recent report from May 2024.
What are probationary employees?
It signifies the amount of time an individual has been working for the government, according to the Code of Federal Regulations. Generally, for their first year of employment, federal workers go through a probationary period.
During this year, an agency can fire a probationary employee for unsatisfactory performance by putting in writing the reason for firing.
In addition, new supervisors or workers who transfer to a different agency might be considered probationary as well, though the length of the period varies.
How many probationary employees are there at the IRS in Missouri?
Just over 1,000 of the almost 6,000 Missouri IRS employees had worked there for less than a year, according to May 2024 data from the Office of Personnel Management. In addition, 768 had been employed between one and two years.
An average Missouri IRS worker had been employed for 10.1 years.
How many seasonal workers at the IRS in Missouri?
The agency hires seasonal employees: 1,761 full-time workers and 114 part-time workers as of May 2024.
But the majority of Missouri IRS employees are permanent, full-time, year-round employees: 4,008 of approximately 6,000 Missouri IRS employees.
How many probationary federal employees are there in Missouri?
For all federal agencies in the Show Me State, there were 4,077 federal workers in Missouri that have been employed for less than a year as of May 2024, approximately 11% of the state’s federal workforce.
The average length of service for Missouri federal employees was 11.1 years.
The Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this report.
Have more questions about employment in Missouri? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 4:26 PM.
