NIOSH Faces Major Layoffs Amid HHS Restructuring, Slashing Two-Thirds of Workforce
Agency to cut 873 positions in federal overhaul, impacting research on worker safety nationwide.
- By Stasia DeMarco, David Kopf
- Apr 01, 2025
HHS is laying off approximately 873 staff members at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which represents roughly two-thirds of the employees. NIOSH studies worker safety and health and its findings are used by various federal and state agencies, as well as the private sector and academia, to protect workers.
According to CBS News, multiple unnamed federal health officials confirmed that the cuts were part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ’s plan for a “dramatic restructuring” of the agency and its various subordinate agencies and programs, such as NIOSH. The entire overhaul is expected to impact 10,000 HHS employees.
The bulk of the cuts would affect NIOSH’s Pittsburgh and Spokane offices, with 200 NIOSH employees anticipated to be impacted, according to a notice sent to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). Also, NIOSH’s Morgantown, W. Va. office would loose 185 employees in the HHS restructuring, according to a Reduction in Force (RIF) notice sent to the AFGE Local 3430. The probable effective date for the layoffs would be June 30.
“It’s been devastating,” Local 3430 President Cathy Tinney-Zara told WVRC MetroNews. “You don’t go into public health for no reason—you care about the public. We’re here for a mission, and it’s just being destroyed.”
Another NIOSH location to be impacted would be roughly 165 NIOSH employees in Cincinnati, according to Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of the AFGE Local 3840, who described the cuts as chaotic.
“Trump and Musk just fired hundreds of NIOSH employees in Cincinnati,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), the district’s congressperson, posted on X. “These folks go to work every day to protect our workers from disease and injuries.”
All employees are to be impacted, including the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, which tests and approves PPE, as well as NIOSH’s Mining Program, which studies safety and health for mine workers.
News of the layoffs was preceded by headlines that NIOSH had paused all new health hazard evaluation probes and imposed travel communication restrictions after the Trump administration took over.
About the Authors
Stasia DeMarco is the Content Editor for OH&S.
David Kopf is the publisher and executive editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine.