The defense department is looking to cut 5 percent to 8 percent of its civilian workforce.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is set to fire thousands of workers as part of President Donald Trump’s push to make federal agencies more efficient and cut fiscal wastage.
“The Department of Defense is re-evaluating our probationary workforce, consistent with the President’s initiative to reform the Federal workforce to maximize efficiency and productivity,” Darin Selnick, performing the duties of under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a Feb. 21 statement.
“We expect approximately 5,400 probationary workers will be released beginning next week as part of this initial effort, after which we will implement a hiring freeze while we conduct a further analysis of our personnel needs, complying as always with all applicable laws.”
In January, Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with a central aim of cutting wasteful spending in the federal government. On Feb. 11, Trump signed an executive order asking leaders of various agencies to work with DOGE to “initiate large-scale reductions in force.”
DOGE staff members have visited various agencies, identifying ways to make them more efficient.
Selnick said that the reevaluation of probationary employees is happening across the government and not just the Defense Department.
“We anticipate reducing the Department’s civilian workforce by 5–8 percent to produce efficiencies and refocus the department on the president’s priorities and restoring readiness in the force,” he said.
According to data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), there were a total of 770,948 individuals employed across the Department of Defense as of August 2024.
A 5 percent to 8 percent reduction indicates potentially cutting 38,547 to 61,675 employees. It is unclear how many civilian personnel are included in these numbers.
Selnick said that retaining employees whose contributions are not “mission-critical” is not in the public interest.
“Taxpayers deserve to have us take a thorough look at our workforce top-to-bottom to see where we can eliminate redundancies,” he said.
During a Feb. 20 address from the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that DOGE will be given access to DOD systems to help the department find “fraud, waste, and abuse.”
