The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is facing what a watchdog report calls the sharpest annual rise in staffing shortages since it began facility-level reporting in 2018, while agency officials said the report provides an inaccurate picture of the workforce.
In its annual review, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported on Aug. 12 that all 139 medical centers reported staffing shortages in fiscal 2025 that were defined as “severe.” The total number of occupations this designation applied to was 4,434, which represents a 50 percent jump from the previous year’s 2,959.
The term “severe shortage” refers to jobs that are difficult to recruit or retain, according to the report, which notes that this is not the same as a vacancy.
The designation takes into account factors such as candidate supply, job location and duties, and past recruiting efforts, signaling chronic hiring and retention problems, even when positions are filled.
The OIG found that 41 occupations experiencing severe shortages were flagged by at least 20 percent of facilities, which is the highest number since tracking began seven years ago. The shortages most frequently cited were physicians, nurses, psychologists, and police officers.
Nearly 94 percent of facilities said they struggled to fill medical officer jobs, which are positions held by licensed physicians across various specialties of medicine.
Seventy-nine percent pointed to nurses, while 57 percent indicated psychologists as the most frequently reported severe clinical staffing shortages. Police—the most common non-clinical staffing shortage—was reported by 58 percent of facilities.
The report is based on questionnaires submitted by facility officials and is not independently verified.
“The OIG made no recommendations, but encourages VA leaders to use these review results to inform staffing initiatives and organizational changes,” Dr. Julie Kroviak, principal deputy assistant inspector general, wrote in the report’s executive summary.
A VA spokesperson said that the report should not be viewed as an accurate reflection of staff shortages, and that it only shows facility perceptions of hard-to-fill jobs rather than actual vacancies.
“This statutorily required report is not based on actual VA health care facility vacancies and therefore is not a reliable indicator of staffing shortages,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
“The report simply lists occupations facilities feel are difficult for which to recruit and retain, so the results are completely subjective, not standardized, and unreliable.”
The VA’s own data show vacancy rates of 14 percent for physicians and 10 percent for nurses. These figures are lower than many private-sector health systems, consistent with historical VA levels, and “much lower than the respective 19% and 20% physician and nurse vacancy rates VA saw at times during the Biden Administration,” the spokesperson stated.
Agency officials also pointed to broader improvements in President Donald Trump’s second term, including shorter average wait times in four of six major categories, a 37 percent drop in the claims backlog, and the opening of 16 new clinics this year.
The VA said it has offered nearly 1 million after-hours appointments since January, is spending $800 million on infrastructure upgrades, and is processing record numbers of disability claims.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said the OIG report indicates that the Trump administration’s efficiency-seeking—which include staffing reductions at the VA through attrition—is hurting veterans.
“Staffing shortages at the Department are getting significantly worse, including critical veterans’ health care positions and essential jobs that keep VA facilities running,” Blumenthal said in a statement.
“This report makes clear the Trump VA’s self-manufactured attrition crisis is neither strategic or ‘natural.’”
Trump’s key policy objectives include streamlining government operations, downsizing the federal bureaucracy, and reducing unnecessary federal spending.
This effort—which includes job cuts at various agencies—has encompassed the VA, which in July set a goal of 30,000 fewer positions by September, through attrition. This marks a change in course from earlier plans to cut more than twice that number through involuntary job cuts.
VA officials said that there are multiple safeguards in place to ensure any workforce reductions will not have a negative impact on veteran care or benefits, and that mission-critical jobs are exempt from any downsizing initiatives.
Bill Pan and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
