WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs will be cut in the Defense Department, but fewer than 21,000 workers who took a voluntary resignation plan are leaving in the coming months, a senior defense official told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n
To reach the goal of a 5% to 8% cut in a civilian workforce of more than 900,000, the official said, the Pentagon aims to slash about 6,000 positions a month by simply not replacing workers who routinely leave.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Pentagon restores some webpages honoring minority service members but defends DEI purge<\/a><\/p>\n A key concern is that service members may then be tapped to fill those civilian jobs left empty by the hiring freeze. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide personnel details, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to ensure the cuts don\u2019t hurt military readiness.<\/p>\n The cuts are part of the broader effort by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk \u2018s Department of Government Efficiency Service to slash the federal workforce and dismantle U.S. agencies.<\/p>\n Acknowledging that \u201csome\u201d military veterans will be among the civilians let go, the official would not estimate how many but agreed it could be thousands.<\/p>\n READ MORE: 5 reasons federal cuts are hitting veterans especially hard<\/a><\/p>\n The department is using three ways to accomplish the workforce cuts: voluntary resignations, firing probationary workers and cutting jobs as employees routinely leave. The official said the military services and Pentagon officials are going over the personnel on a case-by-case basis to ensure cuts don\u2019t affect critical national security jobs.<\/p>\n Officials would not say how many Defense Department civilians requested the voluntary resignation plan \u2014 also known as the \u201cFork in the Road\u201d offer \u2014 but said more requested it than the number who eventually were approved.<\/p>\n The defense official said the \u201cvast majority\u201d were allowed but that in some cases, people were denied for national security reasons or to make sure that too many people in one office didn\u2019t all leave.<\/p>\n He added that Hegseth also has given the secretaries of the military branches and Defense Department personnel leaders the authority to grant exemptions to the hiring freeze.<\/p>\n