The Pentagon has confirmed that up to 60,000 civilian Department of Defense jobs will be cut as part of the administration’s plan to redirect resources to “mission critical functions” under President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
During a media briefing on Tuesday, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters, “The department’s been public about its decision to undertake a strategic reduction of 5 to 8 percent of the department’s civilian workforce in order to direct resources and manpower towards more mission critical functions.”
According to the senior defense official, the anticipated cuts at the Department of Defense will affect roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs. However, the senior defense official noted on Tuesday that roughly a third of the job cuts will come from Department of Defense employees who have volunteered for the department’s deferred resignation program.
“More than 20,000, nearing 21,000 of the applications from employees that volunteered to participate in deferred resignation program. So those will actually be achieved over time,” the Defense official said during a media briefing. “We’re in the process of placing those employees that were approved on administrative leave.”
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Regarding the potential for U.S. veterans to lose their civilian jobs as part of the workforce reduction, the senior official said, “We’re certainly again looking at case by case as we plan workforce reduction.” The official added, “So 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.”
In addition to cutting jobs through the deferred resignation program, the senior defense official explained that the Department of Defense will be “removing certain probationary employees” and implementing a hiring freeze under the Trump administration.
The senior defense official noted that the Pentagon’s anticipated job cuts do not represent a “drastic” reduction in the department’s workforce. The official also emphasized that Hegseth is “confident” that the workforce reduction “can be done without negatively impacting readiness in order to make sure that our resources are allocated in the right direction.”
The senior defense official told reporters on Tuesday that the Department of Defense is a “steward” of the money entrusted to the department by U.S. taxpayers and explained that the Pentagon needs to be “good stewards and accountable for that money and also ensure that we accomplish the mission and have the right focus on the mission.”