A majority of Americans continue to show support for federal employees amid the Trump administration’s deep cuts to agency staff and programs, according to new survey data from the Partnership for Public Service.

While the Trump administration presses forward with rapid and broad changes to the federal workforce, the Partnership’s latest survey on the federal government still found that 55% of survey respondents viewed federal employees favorably, while 35% of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of the government’s workforce.

Those findings show “slightly higher” support for the federal workforce since the organization’s previous survey in 2023, the Partnership wrote last week in its analysis of the new survey.

“The loudest voices aren’t necessarily the majority voices,” Paul Hitlin, the Partnership’s senior research manager, said in an interview. “There’s been a lot of criticism of federal employees, but that’s not the majority opinion.”

Since the Partnership for began collecting data on how the public views the federal workforce back in 2021, the non-profit’s findings have remained consistent: the public holds more positive views of civil servants than the federal government overall.

The latest findings come from an online survey of 1,000 Americans, whom the Partnership surveyed in mid-March. The results also showed that, perhaps more than ever, the public is paying close attention to the inner workings of the federal government, as well as how it is changing through the efforts of the White House and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

In the new survey, 78% of respondents said they are closely following the changes the Trump administration is making to the federal workforce. Another 73% said they are closely following the actions of DOGE.

“It’s unfortunate that it takes some of these agencies getting cut for people to learn what they do, but there is definitely a lot of attention being paid, and I think a lot of people are learning what’s going on,” Hitlin said. “Perhaps long-term, that might have a positive impact on how the country views the agencies that they work for.”

Part of the reason for greater attention to the issue may be because the changes have far-reaching effects. Out of the Partnership’s survey respondents, 29% said they personally know someone who has been affected by the Trump administration’s actions — a combined total of 20% who know someone who has been impacted, and 9% who have been directly and personally affected.

“You’re talking about almost a third of the country — that’s quite a lot of people,” Hitlin said. “That, to me, suggests that while it’s a government story, it’s not a D.C.-only story. People around the country are noticing cuts. They’re paying attention to it, and they’re seeing people around them being impacted.”

The majority of those surveyed opposed DOGE and the cuts to the federal workforce and government programs. Sixty-four percent of survey respondents said they were specifically concerned about a loss of experience and knowledge in the federal workforce.

But there are also many who view the Trump administration’s changes positively. About 80% of those who are supportive of the Trump administration’s federal workforce overhauls said they believe the changes will make their communities and lives better, the Partnership’s survey found.

Even among those who were supportive of the changes, 41% expressed concerns about a loss of experience and knowledge in the federal workforce in the short-term.

“People who support these changes, they’re not expecting it to be perfect. Many of them actually expect that there may be some problems, but they still support the efforts overall. They said they think that, on balance, there will be positive outcomes,” Hitlin said. “That was a little surprising to me — that even though they were supportive of these dramatic changes, and they felt that there were going to be some negative consequences, they were OK with that.”

Prior to its most recent survey, the Partnership has also regularly conducted polling on the public’s trust in government, which continues to wane over time. In 2024, just 23% of Americans said they trusted the federal government — an 11% decline since 2022, according to the Partnership’s findings.

Despite that downward trend, career civil servants themselves maintain a higher level of trust than the federal government as a whole.

“By focusing on the elements of the government that may not receive as much attention as Congress —such as civil servants and the missions of federal agencies,” the Partnership has said, “an opportunity exists to increase the public’s trust.”