US: Pentagon aims to cut 50,000 to 60,000 civilian workers

The Pentagon is working to downsize its civilian workforce by approximately 50,000 to 60,000 employees through voluntary departures, though it remains uncertain whether this target can be met without resorting to involuntary layoffs.

The Department of Defense is currently implementing a voluntary reduction initiative to achieve a 5% to 8% cut in its 878,000 civilian workforce—an adjustment that translates to around 50,000 to 60,000 positions, a senior defense official told reporters on Tuesday.

“The number sounds high, but I would focus on the percentage, a 5% to 8% reduction is not a drastic one,” the official stated, emphasizing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “is confident can be done without negatively impacting readiness in order to make sure that our resources are allocated in the right direction.”

The voluntary downsizing approach includes employees who have opted to resign under a program known as “Fork in the Road,” a hiring freeze preventing the replacement of departing workers, and the termination of 5,400 probationary employees with under one or two years of experience in their current roles.

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So far, about 21,000 civilian employees have had their resignation requests approved under the Pentagon’s Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), which allows employees to resign while still receiving pay until the fiscal year concludes on September 30. However, the senior defense official declined to specify the total number of workers who had applied for this program.

ABC News had previously reported that under a Trump administration initiative, 31,000 civilian employees had submitted resignation requests, though some were denied.

Additionally, a hiring freeze is preventing the usual intake of around 6,000 new civilian employees each month, further contributing to workforce reduction efforts.

The Pentagon had also commenced dismissing 5,400 probationary employees, but this process has been temporarily halted due to a restraining order issued by a federal judge.

The senior official clarified that these employees were not selected for termination “blindly based on the time they had been hired.” Of the Pentagon’s 54,000 total probationary employees—who have less than one or two years of tenure—only those with documented “significant underperformance in their job functions and or had misconduct on the record” were selected for removal. However, it remains unclear whether all 5,400 individuals met these criteria.

“The fact that someone was a probationary employee did not directly mean that they were going to be subject to removal,” the official explained.

When asked about potential “reduction in force” measures the Pentagon might take if voluntary exits fail to meet the downsizing target, the official declined to provide specifics.

“I won’t get ahead of the Secretary,” the official stated. “It’ll be the Secretary’s prerogative to designate how and when he might use any of the other tools that would be available to him to achieve the stated reduction targets.”

There has been speculation that military personnel might be assigned to fill certain civilian roles left vacant due to resignations or the hiring freeze, but the official asserted that the goal is to avoid any impact on military readiness.

“We are confident we could absorb those removals without detriment to our ability to continue the mission, and so that’s how we can be confident that we don’t need to worry about any resulting impact on the uniformed force,” the official said.

The official also acknowledged that some departing civilians would be military veterans but did not offer an estimate.

“Some of those people will be veterans that served in uniform previously, we’re certainly again looking at case by case as we plan workforce reduction,” the official noted. “There are so many critical skills and experience that veterans have to offer, and that’s part of the analysis when we consider who is contributing to the core mission functions and who should be retained.”

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(ABC News)