Civilian Downsizing

The Defense Department (DOD) began its downsizing effort in fiscal year 1988. Since then, DOD has reduced its civilian workforce by about 25 percent, or 284,000 jobs. By the time it finishes its downsizing in fiscal year 2001, DOD will have cut nearly 730,000 jobs, or 35 percent below its strength level in 1987. Civilian downsizing has not harmed military readiness at the installations GAO visited. However, Army installation officials raised concerns about the effects of civilian downsizing on civilian services, such as public works and repair and maintenance. Civilian downsizing has affected the amount of time its takes to repair noncritical equipment, and both Army and Air Force officials said that civilian downsizing had reduced recreational and family services. Officials at all installations were concerned about the effect of downsizing on civilian workforce morale because of limited career and promotion opportunities, job insecurity, and longer working hours. GAO found that the military services lacked a long-term road map to guide civilian reduction decisions to meet future mission requirements. Although the services are developing comprehensive mission strategies to better determine future civilian workforce requirements, most of the civilian reductions will have been completed by the time these strategies are in place.

GAO found that: (1) between fiscal years (FY) 1987 and 1995, DOD reduced its civilian workforce by approximately 25 percent, or 284,000 personnel; (2) by the time DOD finishes current downsizing plans in FY 2001, it will have reduced its civilian workforce by almost 35 percent below 1987 end strength and about 16 percent below 1995 end strength; (3) civilian downsizing has not adversely affected military readiness at the installations GAO visited; (4) Army officials expressed concern that future civlian reductions could adversely affect military readiness if the process was not managed carefully; (5) officials from several services were concerned about the effect of downsizing on civilian workforce morale because of limited career and promotion opportunities, job insecurity, and longer working hours; (6) DOD and the services have various initiatives under way to downsize the civilian workforce and reduce infrastructure costs; and (7) the services have used a variety of approaches to downsize civilians, but the approaches to achieve civilian reductions were not guided by comprehensive, servicewide downsizing strategies.