Treasury
3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp 3-MO 3.82% -1bp 6-MO 3.98% +1bp 1-YR 4.04% unch 2-YR 4.23% +1bp 3-YR 4.30% +1bp 5-YR 4.38% +1bp 7-YR 4.52% +1bp 10-YR 4.68% +1bp 20-YR 5.22% +1bp 30-YR 5.21% +1bp
US Treasury par yield curve · Jul 30 · Source: U.S. Treasury
Friday, July 31, 2026
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Reduction in force

A federal layoff will now rank people by performance first, and a rating of Level 5 is worth seven points

Money & World
The Editorial Team ·
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Every agency that issues a layoff notice after this rule takes effect will rank its people in a different order.

The Office of Personnel Management filed a final rule on Friday morning rewriting how the federal government decides who goes in a reduction in force. The change at the centre of it is the sequence. Retention standing is now determined first by performance, expressed as a number, then by veterans' preference added to that number, with tenure subgroup and length of service used only to break a tie. Under the framework it replaces, tenure and length of service came first.

Performance becomes points. Agencies take the three most recent ratings of record from the relevant four-year period and score them: 7 for Level 5, 5 for Level 4, 3 for Level 3, and nothing at all for Level 1 or Level 2. Veterans' preference is then added on top, 5 points for a preference eligible with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more, 3 points for other preference eligibles.

Who is no longer in the competition

The rule also shrinks the pool. Employees serving initial probationary periods, trial periods, or temporary and time-limited appointments of a year or less are not competing employees for RIF purposes, and neither are Schedule C or Schedule G employees. They can be retained, furloughed, separated, demoted or reassigned without RIF procedures at all.

Two long-standing mechanics go. The tenure groups I, II and III collapse into a competitive service tenure group and an excepted service tenure group, two subgroups each. Bump and retreat is replaced by assignment rights to a position held by someone with lower retention standing in the same tenure group, generally within three grades below, or five grades for certain veterans with a 30 percent or greater disability. Where an agency abolishes every position in a competitive area within 180 days, it can release the employees without building a retention register or applying assignment rights at all.

What OPM heard, and what it changed

Seven hundred and twenty-one unique comments arrived during the 60-day period, from serving and former federal employees, agencies, unions, veterans' groups and others. One submission came in as 100 separate entries and was counted as one commenter.

OPM writes that many objected on the ground that the rule conflicts with the statutory framework and weakens tenure, seniority and veterans' preference, and it states that it disagrees, pointing to the direction in 5 U.S.C. 3502 that it prescribe the regulations. It did move on some points. It declined to finalise a proposal giving agencies more room to run unpaid furloughs beyond 30 days. It added retention and restoration rights under the veterans' reemployment statute as a mandatory exception to the order of release. And it now requires an agency to justify a competitive area in writing, for OPM review, where that area has existed for less than 90 days before the notice or has been materially changed.

The date that matters is the date of the specific RIF notice. Notices issued before the effective date run under the old rules to the end.

The document: Office of Personnel Management, Reduction in Force, final rule, 5 CFR parts 316, 330, 351, 353, 359, 362 and 430, Docket ID OPM-2025-0107, RIN 3206-AO86, FR document 2026-15665, filed for public inspection on 31 July 2026 at 8:45 a.m. Eastern. The complete public inspection text was downloaded and read here; no fetch-tool summary was relied on and every figure and characterisation below was matched against the document. The rule states it is effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, that an agency which issued a RIF notice before the effective date must process that RIF under the regulations in effect when the notice was issued, and that an agency issuing a notice on or after the effective date applies the amended provisions. Its executive summary lists sixteen changes, of which the ones reported below are: replacing the tenure-group framework with a competitive service tenure group and an excepted service tenure group, each with two subgroups; excluding from RIF competition employees serving initial probationary periods, trial periods, temporary or time-limited appointments of one year or less, and Schedule C and Schedule G employees, who may be retained, furloughed, separated, demoted or reassigned without RIF procedures; reordering retention standing so that employees are ranked by performance credit augmented by veterans' preference, with tenure subgroup and length of service as tie-breakers; a numerical performance credit calculated from the three most recent ratings of record in the relevant four-year period, assigning 7 points for Level 5, 5 points for Level 4, 3 points for Level 3 and 0 points for Level 1 or Level 2; veterans' preference applied by adding 5 points for preference eligibles with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more and 3 points for other preference eligibles; exclusion of emergency shutdown furloughs caused by lapses in appropriations from the RIF furlough definition; removal of erosion of duties reclassifications from actions requiring RIF procedures, with a bar on such reclassifications after a RIF is announced where they would adversely affect retention standing; narrowing transfer-of-function requirements to transfers between agencies and identifying affected employees by whether they perform the function at least half of the time; permitting release without a retention register or assignment rights where all positions in a competitive area are abolished within 180 days; replacing bump and retreat with assignment rights to a position held by an employee of lower retention standing in the same tenure group, generally within three grades below, or five grades for certain veterans with a 30 percent or greater disability; and requiring job-related skills-based assessments under the Chance to Compete Act of 2024, Public Law 118-188, unless the employee held the same or substantially similar position within five years and was rated Level 3 or higher. The rule states OPM received 721 unique comments from current and former federal employees, agencies, unions, veterans' groups, professional organisations and think tanks during the 60-day comment period, that one submission arriving as 100 entries was determined to represent one commenter, and that many commenters objected on the ground that the proposal would conflict with the statutory framework and weaken tenure, seniority and veterans' preference, which OPM states it disagrees with, citing 5 U.S.C. 3502. The rule also states OPM did not finalise a proposed change that would have given agencies greater flexibility to conduct unpaid furloughs of more than 30 days, that it added USERRA retention and restoration rights as a mandatory exception to the order of release, and that it now requires an agency to submit a written explanation of the bona fide organisational basis for a competitive area that has been in effect less than 90 days before a specific RIF notice or has been materially modified..

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