Pentagon aims to cut up to 60,000 civilian jobs through buyouts, attrition

The Pentagon plans to cut 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs over the next several months via voluntary resignations and not replacing workers who leave, a senior defense official confirmed Tuesday.

With a goal of cutting 5 to 8 percent of the Defense Department’s civilian workforce of more than 900,000, Pentagon leadership is looking to weed out roughly 6,000 positions a month by not refilling roles as employees leave — either through retirement or moving to a job in the private sector.

The Pentagon also is going about the cuts in two additional ways: voluntary resignations and firing probationary workers, the official said.

The outline is part of the broader effort by the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, to take an axe to the federal civilian workforce.

Almost 21,000 workers who took a voluntary resignation buyout earlier this year, which the official referred to as a “Fork in the Road” offer, are leaving in the coming months.

They would not say how many Defense Department civilians requested a voluntary resignation, but said the “vast majority” who asked for it were approved.

They noted that some people were denied “to ensure the department's ability to effectively function,” so too many people in the same role, specialty or office wouldn't leave at once.

“In the extreme, you could have 10 of 10 experts in a certain field all participate, and if you just blindly accepted all the applications and approved them, you'd have a lot of unintended consequences,” the official said.

The official also acknowledged that “some” military veterans will be among the workers cut, allowing the number could be in the thousands.

So far, the majority of the Pentagon’s workforce reduction effort is voluntary, though the department last month sought to cut some 5,400 probationary civilian workers, a move that has been put on hold due to legal challenges.

A hiring freeze initiated four weeks ago also “creates something like 6,000 civilian workforce slots a month, of natural attrition,” they said.

The official added that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was confident the cuts can be done without negatively impacting military readiness, noting that he has given senior Pentagon leadership the authority to grant exemptions to the hiring freeze.

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