CBO has said the Pentagon could save more than $19 billion over 10 years by using civilian federal employees rather than military personnel for certain work not requiring military status, creating more federal jobs in the process.
CBO said that civilians overall cost less and they further require less job-specific training and are more stable as employees because they are not subject to the frequent transfers that military personnel undergo. On the other hand, it said, eliminating military slots could reduce the number of trained uniformed personnel who could deploy in an emergency for military duties.
CBO does not specifically endorse ideas but merely lays out the options, in this case in the context of a presentation on holding down military personnel costs.
CBO did not cite specific numbers of positions to convert, but in an earlier report suggested a similar savings level from converting 70,000 military positions, half the number that it said potentially could be converted. It further estimated that only 47,000 civilians would be needed to perform that same amount of work as 70,000 military personnel because civilians have fewer “collateral duties” in addition to the efficiencies gained by lower turnover of civilian workers.
