The Department of Veterans Affairs employed 460,955 people as of March 31, 2025, according to the VA’s own reporting.1Department of Veterans Affairs. Annual Report on the Steps Taken to Achieve Full Staffing Capacity That figure is a moving target. The number of VA employees fell by roughly 30,000 over fiscal year 2025, and the department projects it will keep dropping into 2027. Any single headcount is a snapshot of a workforce in the middle of a significant contraction.
How Many People Work at the VA Right Now
The March 2025 count of 460,955 onboard employees includes full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers. The full-time equivalent figure was 451,607.1Department of Veterans Affairs. Annual Report on the Steps Taken to Achieve Full Staffing Capacity
To put that snapshot in context, the VA reported approximately 484,000 employees on January 1, 2025. By June 1, the number had dropped to around 467,000.2Department of Veterans Affairs. VA to Reduce Staff by Nearly 30K by End of FY2025 The VA’s FY 2027 budget submission projects a workforce of about 443,000 FTEs, so the downward trend is expected to continue.3Department of Veterans Affairs. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs FY 2027 Budget Submission Budget in Brief
Even after the reductions, the VA is still the second-largest civilian employer in the federal government, behind only the Department of Defense, which accounts for about 34% of all federal civilian employees.4U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Workforce Size and Composition
Why the Workforce Is Shrinking
The contraction that began in early 2025 was driven by a federal hiring freeze, voluntary early retirement offers, and a deferred resignation program. Together, those measures reduced the VA workforce by roughly 30,000 positions between the start of calendar year 2025 and the end of fiscal year 2025 in September.2Department of Veterans Affairs. VA to Reduce Staff by Nearly 30K by End of FY2025
Most of those departures came from the Veterans Health Administration, the branch that delivers direct medical care and employs the largest share of VA staff. Congressional reports during the same period pointed to average mental health appointment wait times of 35 days and a 44% year-over-year jump in requests for claim reviews. Whether the pace of reductions holds, slows, or reverses depends on congressional appropriations and executive branch decisions in the coming budget cycles.
How the Workforce Splits Across VHA, VBA, and NCA
The VA has three main administrations, and the split among them is heavily lopsided.
The Veterans Health Administration accounts for nearly 90% of all VA employees.1Department of Veterans Affairs. Annual Report on the Steps Taken to Achieve Full Staffing Capacity That’s well over 400,000 people running more than 170 medical centers and nearly 1,200 outpatient sites of care.5U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. About Us – Veterans Health Administration
The Veterans Benefits Administration handles disability claims, pensions, education benefits, and home loan guarantees. Its workforce is much smaller, typically in the 25,000 to 30,000 range. VBA hired heavily after passage of the PACT Act, which expanded eligibility for veterans exposed to toxins during military service and drove a surge in claims.
The National Cemetery Administration is the smallest of the three, with a workforce in the low thousands that operates and maintains the national cemetery system.
Who VA Employees Are by Job
Healthcare workers dominate the headcount. The VA employed about 28,160 physicians as of early 2026.6Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Workforce Dashboard Issue 33 The nursing workforce, which peaked above 119,000 in 2023, had fallen to roughly 89,500 registered nurses by late 2025.7Department of Veterans Affairs. Office of Nursing Services 2023 Annual Report A loss of nearly 30,000 nurses over about two years is one of the sharper workforce shifts inside the agency.
Outside clinical roles, thousands of VBA claims processors review medical evidence and service records to decide benefit eligibility, a workload that grew heavier after the PACT Act. IT specialists support one of the largest digital health record systems in the world. VA police officers secure medical centers and other facilities; the VA Office of Inspector General has flagged police staffing as a severe shortage at 58% of VHA facilities, the most frequently reported staffing gap across the system. Medical assistants, logistics staff, and facilities workers fill out a workforce where non-clinical roles are essential to keeping hospitals running.
Where VA Employees Work
The VA workforce is spread across every state, not concentrated in Washington, D.C. Facility placement follows where veterans live, so states with larger veteran populations have heavier concentrations of VA staff. A single large medical center campus can employ several thousand people, which makes the VA one of the biggest employers in many communities.
As of early 2025, more than 20% of VA employees had telework or remote work arrangements. A return-to-office policy announced in February 2025 began shifting much of that workforce back to in-person work.8Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Announces Return to In-Person Work Policy
Because the workforce is geographically dispersed, cuts don’t land evenly. A reduction that looks modest at the national level can leave a rural clinic critically short-staffed while a large urban medical center absorbs the same percentage loss without much visible strain.