Poll: 25 Percent of Federal Employees Could Quit If Trump Elected

A full quarter of federal government employees might quit if Donald Trump is elected president, according to a new poll.
Poll: 25 Percent of Federal Employees Could Quit If Trump Elected
Donald Trump poses for a portrait in Sterling, Va., on Dec. 2, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Jonathan Zhou
2/2/2016
Updated:
2/2/2016

A full quarter of federal government employees might quit if Donald Trump is elected president, according to a new poll.

The Government Business Council found in a recent survey that a full 14 percent of federal employees said they would definitely leave if Trump becomes president, and 11 percent said they might leave.

A majority of the respondents were highly ranked civil servants, who are GS-13 and higher in the General Schedule scale, which ranges from 1 to 15 with ascending honor and pay.

The poll was conducted on a sample of 688 federal employees who subscribed to Government Executive magazine, with a margin of error of 4 percent.

Among Democrats, a full 42 percent said they would consider leaving, just slightly less than the 48 percent of Democrats who said they would stay.

A much smaller number of Republicans, 8 percent, said they would quit under a hypothetical Trump presidency.

Even though a majority wouldn’t quit, 60 percent of civil servants said they would be “embarrassed” to serve under Trump, compared to just 37 percent for a hypothetical Bernie Sanders presidency.

Jonathan Zhou is a tech reporter who has written about drones, artificial intelligence, and space exploration.
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