Air Force cutting civilian 9,000 civilian positions now, more later
The Air Force plans to eliminate 9,000 civilian positions now and another 4,500 positions later, the service announced Wednesday in a news release.
"We understand the stress caused by uncertainty and will do our best to share information across the workforce as soon as it becomes available," Brig. Gen. Gina Grosso, Manpower, Organization, and Resources director, said in the news release.
That does not automatically translate into 13,500 people because many positions are currently vacant, an Air Force official said.
"At this time, we are not sure whether a reduction in force will be necessary," Grosso said."We are pursuing all available voluntary force management measures to include civilian hiring controls with the goal of avoiding non-voluntary measures. Every vacancy we don't fill brings us one position closer to fiscal year 2010 levels, and reduces the possibility for a (Reduction in Force)."
The cuts are in primarily in management., staff and support positions, according to the news release. The reason the service is eliminating these positions because the Defense Department has decreed that the service cannot grow beyond fiscal 2010 manning levels
So, in order to add 5,900 personnel in areas such as the nuclear enterprise, acquisitions and surveillance, it must cut positions in other areas, the news release said.
As part of this effort, Air Force Materiel Command is being reorganized, allowing it to eliminate about 1,000 overhead positions.
Read 'Air Force cutting 9,000 jobs now, more later' by the Associated Press.
