Pentagon firings to begin next week in effort to cut up to 8 percent of civilian workforce

The Pentagon seeks to cut more than 5,000 civilian employees on probation status beginning next week in a bid to eventually shave off up to 8 percent of the U.S. military’s civilian workforce, the building’s top personnel official said Friday.

The firings, part of the Trump administration’s bid to gut the federal workforce, is expected to initially affect approximately 5,400 probationary workers, acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Darin Selnick said in a statement.

“We anticipate reducing the Department’s civilian workforce by 5-8% to produce efficiencies and refocus the Department on the President’s priorities and restoring readiness in the force,” Selnick said. “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.”

The announcement comes as Defense officials are bracing for mass firings. Internal communications across multiple military services over the past week said probationary workers — those hired within the past year — were on the chopping block, with commands instructed to compile lists of those who could be let go and those to save.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previewed those layoffs Thursday in a video posted to social media, saying it is “not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical.”

“Taxpayers deserve to have us take a really thorough look at our workforce top to bottom — and it will be top to bottom — to see where we can find and eliminate redundancy,” he added.

Hegseth also said the Pentagon has “put out a hiring freeze” on all employees while it takes the time to identify “a performance-based standard.”

CNN earlier this week reported that the firings could run afoul of Title 10 section 129a of the U.S. Code, a law that requires the Pentagon chief to conduct “an appropriate analysis” of how major dismissals could impact the U.S. military’s lethality and readiness before they can begin such layoffs.

But it appears the Trump administration, for the time being, will continue to forge ahead with its slash-and-burn approach to scaling back the federal workforce via the Department of Government Efficiency.

While there is no official figure available of the total firings or layoffs, it's known that several thousand federal employees have been shown the door in President Trump’s first month of presidency, including 1,000 from the Department of Veterans Affairs let go last week.

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