The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is prepared to eliminate between 50,000 and 60,000 civilian jobs, according to an official source from the department.
This news comes weeks after Pentagon leaders announced they planned to reduce between 5% and 8% of their civilian workforce as part of a broader cut in federal government personnel.
The exact timing of the cuts has not been specified, but the source indicated that the Department of Defense will seek to eliminate around 6,000 positions each month, without replacing workers who routinely leave their positions.
These cuts will mainly affect employees who have already voluntarily resigned this year and who will leave their positions in the coming months. It was reported that fewer than 21,000 workers left their positions voluntarily.
These cuts come amid major efforts by several government agencies to reduce their workforces, under the guidance of the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk, who are pushing for cuts to reduce government spending and make the state much more efficient.
At the end of last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a memorandum stating that the Pentagon's budget “will provide the necessary resources for the combat force” and that unnecessary defense spending would be eliminated, excessive bureaucracy would be rejected, and a reform would be promoted that includes advances in the department's audit.
According to a report, more than 900,000 people are part of the Department of Defense's civilian workforce, meaning that to meet the goal of cutting between 5% and 8%, the Pentagon would have to eliminate between 45,000 and 72,000 jobs.
On March 4, the Pentagon published an article reviewing “some of the initial findings” of DOGE within the Department of Defense.
The article mentioned that around 80 million dollars had been wasted on programs that did not support the core mission of the department responsible for the country's defense.
