Senior Pentagon officials have told Congress that they will encourage components to “liberally” offer employees early retirement and buyout incentives in the year ahead, as the budget proposal assumes that civilian employment will be reduced along with military personnel. An official told a Senate panel that those incentives “have been valuable in reducing involuntary separations and associated costs” while the general hiring freeze imposed in most components due to sequestration last year put the department “at risk of competency gaps and critical skill shortages in key mission critical areas” but will continue where necessary. The Air Force meanwhile is now offering buyouts and early retirements, although it did not specify how many employees it hopes will take the incentives or how long the window will remain open. Like the round of offers in December, the new offers will be targeted by occupation and location, including in functions subject to the DoD-wide 20 percent reduction underway in headquarters positions. Separately, Army secretary John McHugh told a House hearing that the Army “will use all available workforce shaping tools such as voluntary early retirement authority and voluntary separation incentive pay to reduce turbulence in our civilian workforce. We will target the skills we need to retain, and voluntarily separate those with skills no longer needed.”Both the Air Force and Army said that if they can’t civilian reduction goals by voluntary means, they will use reduction in force as a last resort.