All executive departments and agencies of the federal government shall be closed Wednesday, December 24, and Friday, December 26, the day before and after Christmas, President Trump ordered on Dec. 18.
But the heads of some executive departments may determine that certain offices must remain open “for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need,” the order also states.
Recent presidents, including Trump in his first term and former President Obama, have been known to give federal employees an extra day off around Christmas to give federal employees a longer weekend. Obama issued an executive order in 2014 to give federal employees an extra day off on Dec. 26. And Obama created a four-day weekend in 2012, when Christmas fell on a Tuesday.
About 83,500 workers in Ohio were employed by the federal government at the end of 2024, which equates to about 1.5% of the state’s nonfarm payrolls, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in March this year.
However, in September, the bureau put the number of government workers in the “Dayton-Kettering-Beavercreek“ area overall at 61,600, down 2.7% over the previous 12 months.
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