The Department of Defense is preparing to cut down jobs for around 50,000 to 60,000 civilians, senior officials said. ABC News on tuesday.
Officials say the Pentagon intends to cut its private workforce by 5% to 8%. With 878,000 employees, we plan to achieve this in part by not filling the vacancy left by approximately 6,000 staff each month.
“We are confident that we can absorb these deals without compromising our ability to continue our mission.”
A senior defense official told ABC News: “The numbers sound high, but I'll focus on percentages. A 5% to 8% reduction is not dramatic.”
The DOD also reportedly relies on voluntary resignation and termination of probation workers to achieve their goals.
It is unclear how many private employees chose to voluntarily resign. However, ABC News estimates the total to be around 31,000.
The Pentagon has tried to terminate roughly 5,400 probation workers, but cuts are pending as the move faces legal challenges.
Officials told the media outlet that probation employees were “blind based on the time they were hired,” but “they were documented as having significantly lower performance in their work functions or having misconducted records.”
“The fact that someone was a probation employee didn't directly mean they were subject to deletion,” the official added.
DoD Secretary Pete Hegseth added that the department is individually assessing staff to ensure that key national security roles are retained, as he does not want the cut to affect military preparations, officials said.
Hegseth has yet to publicly comment on the officials' claims, but he has addressed the impact of the budget cuts in the February leak memo that he obtained. Washington Post.
“The preparation time is over. We must act urgently to revive the warrior spirit, rebuild our troops, and reestablish deterrence,” Heggs wrote. “Our budget will fund the combat forces we need, halt unnecessary defence spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and promote practical reforms, including audit progress.”
Hegseth argued that DOD should implement funds for a “wartime tempo” while offsetting costs by reducing “low-shocking items.”
A defense official told ABC News: “I'm sure we can absorb these removals without damaging our ability to continue our mission, so it's a way to ensure we don't have to worry about the impact on a unified force.”
Officials noted that “part” of job cuts will affect veterans.
“There are so many important skills and experiences that veterans have to offer, and that's part of the analysis when considering who is contributing to the core mission function and who should be retained,” the official said.
DOD did not respond to requests for comment from Forbes.
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