If the Trump administration reaches its goal of cutting 5% to 10% of staff, more than 100,000 people will leave the federal workforce, making it by far the largest layoff in U.S. history. The current record-holder is IBM, which cut 60,000 jobs in 1993.

Staffers would be paid for eight months if they resign rather than return to the office full time.

The future of millions of federal workers was plunged into another day of chaos Thursday as they faced fresh uncertainty over an unprecedented program pushing financial incentives in exchange for quitting their jobs.

A federal judge on Thursday pushed back to Monday a deadline for U.S. government employees to opt into the Trump administration's "deferred resignation" program offering workers nearly eight months of pay and benefits to leave their jobs.

Federal workers now have until Monday, Feb. 10, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern to decide whether to resign with pay through the end of September, the Trump administration said.