154,000 federal employees accepted buyout offers and were removed from the payroll last month, alongside 105,000 regular retirements, marking an 18% increase from the previous year.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is currently processing over 35,000 retirement cases, but only 13,000 have been completed. Last fiscal year, OPM processed 104,800 cases, compared to 88,608 the year before.

Retirement processing times jumped from under 50 days in spring to 76 days in September, driven by the unprecedented wave of departures.

OPM has lost about one-third of its workforce since January, dropping from more than 3,000 employees, which has worsened delays and workload pressure.

Federal retirement spending is up roughly 16% this year compared to last year, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model.