U.S. President Donald Trump walks to the Oval Office after returning to the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, Feb. 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Trump White House has seen a record rate of first-year staff turnover, according to The Wall Street Journal.

During Trump's first year in office, his administration saw a 34-percent turnover rate, higher than that of any other administration in the past 40 years, The Journal reported Thursday, citing Brookings Institute senior fellow Kathryn Dunn-Tenpas.

The rate of staff turnover is twice as high as in 1981, the second highest, when then-President Ronald Reagan's administration had a 17-percent turnover.

Per The Journal, 21 of the 61 senior officials tracked have either resigned, been fired or reassigned.

"Not only is the percentage double, the seniority of people leaving is extraordinarily high," Dunn-Tenpas said.

"The first year always seems to have some missteps on staffing, often because the skills that worked well running a campaign don't always align with what it takes to run a government," she noted. "In this case, it's a president with no experience in government and people around him who also had no experience."

The Trump administration has been plagued by controversy over those departures, including the firing of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the removal of former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Other high-profile names to have left the administration include former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former press secretary Sean Spicer, and former advisers Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka.