Trump Administration and Elon Musk's Efficiency Push Leads to Massive Pentagon Job Cuts

Defense officials said the cuts are meant to "produce efficiencies" and align the department with the president's goals. It's still unclear which jobs will be cut, but this comes after similar announcements at other government agencies, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Some of the Pentagon's top goals are protecting the borders, building an "Iron Dome for America," and ending diversity programs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the news stories about the cuts were inaccurate and didn't show how hard DOGE was working. However, a past study by the Government Accountability Office found that the Pentagon employs about 700,000 civilians. 

In the long run, a 5% to 8% reduction could affect between 35,000 and 56,000 workers. Concerns have been made about the effect on veteran employees, who make up a big part of the Pentagon's civilian workforce, and the chance of firing people for no reason, which has been seen in other agencies. 

The first round of layoffs is aimed at probationary workers. After that, the Pentagon will stop hiring new people while it continues to study its staffing needs. Because of the move, many people are also talking about how to handle private data, like information about veterans, during the efficiency review process. 

Even though employees were promised fair treatment, the size of the planned layoffs has caused doubt and stress among Pentagon workers.

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