New Update Documents Continued Staffing, Leadership Strains at Federal Statistical Agencies
ALEXANDRIA, VA, July 28, 2026 — The American Statistical Association today released 2026 Midyear Update: Resources and Leadership Supporting Federal Statistics, the first in a new series of topical updates supplementing its ongoing assessment of the health of federal statistics. The update focuses on staffing, budgets and leadership—the core resources agencies need to fulfill their missions—and finds that agencies continue to operate with substantially fewer staff, reduced purchasing power and significant leadership gaps.
Federal statistics—produced by agencies including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and the National Center for Health Statistics—inform decisions by congress, businesses, researchers and households on matters ranging from inflation and employment to public health and education.
"The statistical agencies have shown remarkable resilience over the past 18 months, continuing to produce the data the nation relies on," said ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein. "At the same time, the cumulative loss of staff and leadership raises serious questions about the agencies' long-term capacity to meet their missions."
The update documents the following trends:
- Staffing losses: All 13 federal statistical agencies have experienced staffing reductions since January 2025. Six agencies have lost at least one-third of their workforce and two have lost more than two-thirds. While hiring has resumed at many agencies, it’s only for a handful of positions at most and, for the others, recruitment has barely begun to offset earlier losses.
- Widespread leadership vacancies: As of July 28, 2026, only 6 of the 13 agencies are headed by permanent, non-acting leaders.
- Eroding purchasing power: Most agencies received FY26 appropriations close to FY25 levels, but after accounting for inflation, purchasing power continued to decline. Eight agencies have lost at least 18% of their purchasing power since FY09.
- Proposed further cuts: The administration's FY27 budget request again proposes substantial reductions for most statistical agencies, with funding for 2030 Census preparations as the principal exception.
- Significant agency transitions: The National Agricultural Statistics Service lost nearly 40% of its staff since 2024 and is expected to lose more with a relocation for many positions from Washington, DC, to St. Louis, Missouri. The former Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics at the Social Security Administration has lost nearly 70% of its staff amid a restructuring that leaves its future role as a statistical agency uncertain.
In addition to concluding that agencies are in a weakened and vulnerable position, the authors note that the pace of change has slowed in 2026 compared to the disruptions of 2025. Several agencies have resumed hiring, and, with the exception of the National Center for Education Statistics, most continue to regularly release their products. Some agencies have also introduced new statistical tools and products despite resource constraints.
At the same time, the report finds that recent policy changes—including changes to civil service protections and new restrictions on privacy-protection methods used by the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis—are likely to have lasting implications for the agencies' operating environments.
About the Update
This report marks a new feature of our project: shorter topical updates that will supplement the ASA's periodic Nation's Data at Risk reports. The next updates, on topics still being determined, will focus on developments, or changes since the December 2025 report, that are especially significant. The project’s comprehensive reports will continue to examine what these changes mean for the quality, availability and integrity of federal statistics. The next such report will be issued by June, 2027.
The full update is available at https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/FedStatHealth_MidYearUpdate.pdf.
This update also marks the sharing of Federal Statistical Agency Staffing, a new resource documenting staffing levels for the agencies. This adds to a resource that tracks statistical agency budgets and many additional resources that can be found at this project webpage.
About the American Statistical Association
The American Statistical Association is the world's largest community of statisticians and the oldest continuously operating professional science society in the United States. For more information, visit www.amstat.org.
Contact: Steve Pierson
American Statistical Association
703.302.1841
spierson@amstat.org