While the Trump administration has largely ended remote work for many Federal employees, a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is urging the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to issue new guidance for agencies that are offering remote work.
According to the government watchdog, over 200,000 Federal employees – nine percent of the Federal workforce – worked remotely across the country as of June 2024.
Since then, President Donald Trump directed agencies to cancel remote work arrangements, but he granted exceptions to military spouses and people with disabilities, among others.
“However, OPM canceled its August 2024 guidance that agencies assess remote work’s effects on their mission, recruitment, and retention, making it less likely agencies will understand its effects on outcomes and operations,” the report says.
“Conducting such assessments would provide agencies with important insights into how their use of remote work could be improved,” it adds.
Notably, most agencies told GAO that remote work likely helped them to recruit and retain staff. For example, OPM found that remote job announcements received 366 applications on average, compared to 51 for non-remote.
Additionally, GAO found that agencies with a higher percentage of remote job announcements “were more likely to meet hiring goals for mission-critical jobs.”
GAO is recommending that OPM issue guidance for agencies to assess the benefits and costs when offering remote work positions, “including its effects on the mission and outcomes of the agency, employee recruitment and retention, and operational costs.”
OPM partially concurred with GAO’s recommendation. In its response to GAO’s recommendation, OPM said that it canceled the August 2024 guidance in January 2025 because “it conflicted with Trump administration policy and had not been successful in obtaining meaningful data or oversight regarding remote work.”
For the remaining remote workers, OPM said it plans to issue further data calls that would measure “the benefits and costs when offering remote work positions.”