SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Mayor Daniel Lurie on Monday sent layoff notices to 127 city employees across 18 departments, the opening move in what his office has described as a broader restructuring of San Francisco’s municipal workforce. The notices mark the first concrete wave of job cuts as the city confronts one of the most significant fiscal crises in recent memory.
The affected departments span a wide range of city services, including the city administrator’s office, the Department of Public Health, the San Francisco Police Department, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and the Human Services Agency, among others. A complete list of affected departments was not immediately made available.
The 127 notices represent only the beginning. Lurie has said he intends to eliminate a total of 500 positions across city government, with a second phase of layoffs potentially arriving around the time he releases his proposed budget at the end of May or early June. In addition to the layoffs, the mayor’s office has frozen approximately 2,000 vacant positions citywide.
The cuts are driven by a $643 million budget deficit projected over the next two years. City officials have attributed much of the fiscal strain to federal funding reductions under President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda, which officials say gutted local healthcare funding. The deficit had previously been projected at $936 million before the city controller’s office released a more favorable outlook in March, crediting a decrease in retirement fund payments and better-than-expected hotel and sales tax revenue.
In a statement, Lurie framed the layoffs as a painful but unavoidable step. “Facing a budget deficit that will rise to $1 billion, alongside significant cuts in federal and state funding, we have a choice: take action now or be forced to do twice as much in the coming years,” he said. “The steps we’re taking today are a painful but necessary continuation of the work we’ve been doing since last year to manage taxpayer dollars responsibly and deliver the best possible services for San Franciscans.”
The mayor’s approach this year is notably more aggressive than last year’s effort. In 2025, Lurie announced roughly 150 layoffs, but after negotiations with the Board of Supervisors, that figure was reduced to approximately 40 workers actually losing their jobs by the time the budget was finalized over the summer. This year, the administration is moving earlier in the calendar year, a deliberate strategy to generate greater savings over time.
Even so, the scale remains modest relative to the city’s total workforce. San Francisco employs approximately 34,000 people, meaning that if all 500 planned cuts are carried out, they would represent a reduction of roughly 1.5 percent of the city’s headcount.
The announcement drew immediate and forceful condemnation from the city’s two major public-sector unions, SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21. “What we know so far is that the cuts are drastic and are going to be felt in every corner of San Francisco,” the unions said in a joint statement. “City workers are deeply concerned that these cuts will further strain already understaffed departments that keep San Francisco clean, safe, and livable.”
The unions are pursuing a parallel political strategy to counter the layoffs. They are backing a ballot measure called the Overpaid CEO Tax, set to appear on the June 2 ballot, which labor groups say could raise approximately $200 million for the city’s general fund and reduce the need for workforce cuts.
The relationship between Lurie and organized labor has been strained since last year’s budget fight, during which protests over job cuts grew heated enough that one labor leader was arrested on the floor of the Board of Supervisors’ chambers.
In December, Lurie had already announced $400 million in budget cuts, with $100 million of that figure earmarked for personnel reductions. Monday’s layoff notices represent the follow-through on that commitment, translating a months-old announcement into tangible job losses for more than a hundred city workers.
