Fewer Defense Department employees were downsized in 1999 than in any year in the past decade, the Pentagon's civilian policy chief said Thursday.
Diane Disney, in testimony before two House panels, said 29,000 civilian positions were eliminated in 1999, down from a peak of 69,000 jobs in 1993. But the Defense drawdown is far from over; another 11 percent of civilian positions in military functions will be eliminated in the next five years, Disney said.
Disney also said that despite the wear and tear on workers, the National Partnership for Reinventing Government's 1999 employee satisfaction survey found that about 60 percent of DoD employees are satisfied with their jobs.
"While we wish that our employees' job satisfaction rate was higher, we are gratified at the response given the extraordinary circumstances of the past 10 years," Disney said in prepared testimony for a joint hearing of the House Armed Services Military Readiness Subcommittee and the House Government Reform Civil Service Subcommittee.
One reason for employee dissatisfaction is the lack of promotion opportunities in DoD. The rate of promotions for white-collar employees is half what it was in the 1980s. Only about 10 percent of employees are promoted each year. Blue-collar workers are also receiving fewer promotions, down from 7.9 percent in 1989 to less than 5 percent today.
"This reduction has cut across race and gender lines, reflecting a decline in the number of available positions and the shrinking of lower-graded jobs, where promotion rates are typically faster than at the higher levels," Disney explained.
Young workers are also a shrinking force in the civilian ranks. Ten years ago, workers under age 31 accounted for 17.3 percent of DoD's workforce. Now they account for 6.2 percent. The average age of civilian workers is on the rise, soon to reach 46 years old.
Downsizing and restructuring have left many federal agencies with tough human resources challenges, said Frank Cipolla, director of the National Academy for Public Administration's Center for Human Resources Management.
"There is no doubt that the task faced by DoD and its components to assure that the right people are in the right place at the right time, is more daunting than ever," Cipolla said.
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