The Pentagon announced plans to fire 5-8% of civilian workers on Friday, beginning next week with layoffs of 5,400 probation workers, Pentagon officials said in a statement.
Following the first civilian layoff, the Department of Defense hires Freeze to analyze military personnel needs in accordance with Donald Trump’s political goals and to help defend against staff and preparation, Darrin Selnick, Director of Defense for Staff and Preparation said in a statement.
“We expect to reduce the number of civilian workers in the sector by 5-8%, generate efficiency, refocus on the president’s priorities and restore troop preparation,” Selnick said.
“It’s not just the public interest to maintain individuals whose contributions are not mission-critical. Taxpayers put our workforce in a top-to-bottom manner to see where redundancy can be eliminated. It deserves to be seen by
Following the announcement of a sweep shooting on civilian workers, Donald Trump has fired the current chairman of Co-Chief of Staff, CQ Brown Jr.
The cuts in the first pentagonal job scheduled for next week are just a small portion of the 50,000 Department of Defense job losses that some people had anticipated, but may not be the last. The Department of Defense is the largest government agency, and the Government’s Accountability Office discovered in 2023 that there were over 700,000 full-time civilian workers.
A 5-8% reduction in that force means layoffs of 35,000-60,000 people.
The cut announcement said Elon Musk’s “Ministry of Government Efficiency” initiative (Doge) was in the Pentagon early in the week and received a list of such employees. They said these lists do not include military personnel in uniforms who are exempt.
Probation employees are generally employees who are at work for less than a year and have not yet obtained civil servant protection.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses posted last week on X, which the Pentagon needed to “reduce fat (HQ) and grow muscle (fighter jets)” and posted on X.
Hegseth also directed military services to identify $50 billion programs with programs that can be cut next year to redirect those savings to fund Trump’s priorities. It represents about 8% of the military budget.
Most of the recently terminated employees across the federal government began their current position last year, and are considered probationary periods and have less employment protection. About half of them live in states that voted for Trump in the 2024 election, government figures show.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report
