In fiscal year 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission had a departure of 18% of its employees. The SEC’s Division of Investment Management lost 24% of its staff during fiscal year 2025.
What is the effect of the departure? The GAO had interviews with several dozen SEC employees.
- About half (33 of 61) said the employees who left SEC had either unique knowledge from many years of experience or specific subject-matter expertise.
- They noted that the departures led to a loss of institutional knowledge.
- A few employees (5 of 61) expressed that the limited time some employees had before leaving was not adequate to pass on their knowledge.
- One employee noted that individuals who accepted the deferred resignation program left within 7 days.
- A few employees (8 of 61) stated that they believed SEC has not yet experienced the full effects of these departures, including potential knowledge or expertise gaps. For example, one employee said SEC has many “single points of failure” in key areas of expertise and that it would take time to determine what expertise the agency had lost.
We’ll see how this affects the SEC.
Sources:
- Securities And Exchange Commission: Recent Workforce Reductions and Other Personnel Management Changes GAO Report Published March 27, 2026
- Full Report
- SEC Division Overseeing Private Credit Firms Lost 24% of Staff by Lydia Beyoud