The Defense Department last week said it expects to cut its civilian workforce between 5-8%, adding that beginning this week it will start to lay off 5,400 probationary workers followed by a hiring freeze.
The department is “re-evaluating our probationary workforce” as it complies with President Donald Trump’s direction for a more efficient and productive workforce, Darin Selnick, acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in a DoD-wide memo last Friday.
Nuclear modernization and national missile defense are on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s list of priorities that are to be safe from the 8% in annual cuts Hegseth has proposed.
The hiring freeze will remain in effect while the department analyzes its personnel needs, Selnick wrote. “As the Secretary made clear, it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical,” he said. “Taxpayers deserve to have us take a thorough look at our workforce top-to-bottom to see where we can eliminate redundancies.”
Selnick also said employees will be “treated with dignity and respect.” .
A version of this story was first published by Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily.
