All but a few employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) worldwide will be placed on paid administrative leave, with the exception of a limited number of workers in critical positions, and some 2,000 positions in the United States will be eliminated as part of a plan to restructure the agency, the US government has announced.

In an official notice to USAID employees, the administration said that effective midnight EST on Sunday, all direct-hire USAID employees will be placed on administrative leave, with the exception of essential employees in mission-critical functions, and the agency has begun implementing a workforce reduction plan that includes approximately 2,000 employees within the United States.