The total workforce is being reduced from 82,000 to 62,000, which includes the 10,000 layoffs and an additional 10,000 employees who have voluntarily left the agency after buyout offers made by the Trump administration to nearly all federal employees.
Most of the cuts affect the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where 3,500 and 2,400 positions, respectively, are being eliminated.
At the same time, 1,200 positions are being eliminated at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) research institute.
According to the news agency Reuters, the agency will also close half of its regional offices.
Earlier in March, US Health Minister Robert F Kennedy announced that around 80,000 employees at HHS had been offered $25,000 in severance pay.
In February, Kennedy said in an interview with Fox News that he had a "generic list" of HHS personnel he wanted to get rid of.
If you're in there working for the pharmaceutical industry, then I think you should move out and work for the pharmaceutical industry, he said in the interview.
