Pentagon looks to cut 40,000 to 50,000 civilians over five years

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is looking to reduce the size of its nearly 800,000 civilian workforce by 40,000 to 50,000 employees over the next five years, mainly through attrition as it closes bases and consolidates healthcare facilities, the department's comptroller said on Wednesday.

"I would hope that given the time to prepare, we could do this through attrition, but we aren't far enough along to really know for sure as to how we do it," said Undersecretary of Defence Robert Hale, the Pentagon's comptroller.