A year after the DOGE cuts, GSA now plans to hire hundreds of employees

After a year Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fired thousands of government employees, and one of the federal agencies affected by these cuts is now preparing to hire hundreds of people.

The General Services Administration (GSA), the agency that oversees the government’s IT division and real estate properties, is hiring for “nearly 400 positions” across its Public Building Services (PBS) division, according to an email obtained by WIRED.

“We are pleased to announce that GSA’s Strategic Staffing Committee has approved a PBS staffing plan designed to meet our workforce needs and strengthen our teams,” said an email from PBS Chief of Staff Donna Dix to employees on Monday.

The email goes on to say that hiring efforts will focus on “top areas of need: facilities management, acquisitions, and project management.”

GSA did not respond to a request for comment.

PBS, which operates federal buildings under the GSA banner, lost hundreds of employees in March 2025 following DOGE cutbacks. The agency was also instructed to sell more than 500 government buildings, some of which house government agencies and offices for U.S. senators, WIRED reported at the time. One of the properties on the list was a sensitive complex housing a CIA facility in northern Virginia. The agency has since backed away from those plans, instead doubling down on its efforts to help ICE expand across the United States. WIRED reported in February that GSA and PBS are helping ICE plans to lease offices across the United States as part of a massive expansion drive.

This is not the first time that PBS has announced plans to rehire or replace federal employees laid off by DOGE. In September, hundreds of PBS employees were given the opportunity to return to work months after accepting a deferred resignation offer, making their half-year separation an extended furlough.

Stephen Eckian, the former acting head of the GSA, left the agency in September 2025 after undertaking widespread layoffs. As of last May, 2,100 workers had submitted their deferred resignations, and 1,000 others were laid off. “The opportunity we had was restructuring [GSA]“, downsized, and now the team is in an exceptional position to rebuild it the way they want,” he told Nextgov at the time. Ehikian’s wife previously worked at Elon Musk’s social media company X.

Since leaving government, Ehekian has moved into the private sector, where he ran artificial intelligence company C3 AI. Earlier this year, the company announced significant cuts to its workforce. Its shares fell by 17 percent after this announcement.