Which California agencies eliminated the most vacant positions?

In last week’s overview of the 2025-26 proposed budget, the Finance Department provided minimal details of how the state achieved $617 million in savings this fiscal year by cutting 6,500 vacant state jobs. The cost-saving measure, along with reducing departments’ budgets, was one of the ways the administration planned to address a massive budget shortfall last year.

While the budget summary detailed how the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation eliminated over 440 unfilled positions in this fiscal year, the document didn’t outline how the vacancy sweeps affected other agencies.

The Finance Department sent a letter to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee on Friday, providing a more detailed breakdown of where those vacancy sweeps occurred and how much departments proposed saving as part of the state’s operations cut. The letter includes an attachment that provides a list of how many vacancies each department eliminated.

Of the departments proposing to cut the highest number of vacant jobs, the Department of Transportation plans to eliminate 621 unfilled positions from its ranks. The Department of Tax and Fee Administration and Department of Public Health both will eliminate 300 unfilled positions. CDCR proposed cutting more than 850 vacant jobs, though the department did not respond to a request to clarify why this number was different from what was outlined in the budget summary.

Finance Director Joe Stephenshaw noted that open positions related to public safety, emergency services and 24-hour staffing requirements were exempt from elimination. Cal Fire has been exempted entirely from any cuts since the Los Angeles fires began.

On the reductions to departmental budgets, which is expected to save California $1.5 billion this fiscal year, the Department of Water Resources proposed eliminating $222 million from its expenses. DWR’s anticipated expenditures for 2025-26 are $3.9 billion. The proposed operation cuts to DWR were the highest of any state department, excluding the University of California and the California State University systems.

“The reductions provided by DWR will allow us to continue to provide a safe, reliable water supply for 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland, while ensuring protections for endangered fish species and our natural resources, as well as providing flood protection and dam safety for all Californians,” said Ryan Endean, a spokesperson for the Department of Water Resources.

The Finance Department told lawmakers that it will evaluate the impact of vacancy sweeps and operational cuts on departments’ programs and job classifications. Afterwards, the department will ask the State Controller to reduce agencies’ budgets accordingly.