Trump says the federal workforce is too big. Here's what to know about its size.

President Trump is moving swiftly to shrink the U.S. federal government — the nation's largest employer — a move that he has said will slash wasteful spending and make the nation's civil workforce more responsive to his administration's dictates. 

Mr. Trump has described the federal government as "bloated" and filled with "people that are unnecessary." While the federal government has inefficiencies, as do all large and complex organizations, some experts are pointing out that the government workforce has grown little since 1980, and that some agencies and services had already been grappling with staffing shortages, including the Veterans Health Administration and the FAA's air traffic control centers.

"There's no indication that the government is particularly bloated in terms of numbers of federal workers — that number hasn't really changed over the past decades," Elizabeth Linos, the Emma Bloomberg associate professor of public policy and management at Harvard's Kennedy School, told CBS MoneyWatch. "The problem we were facing over the past decades isn't one of bloat, but of vacancies."