Skip to main content
We may receive compensation from affiliate partners for some links on this site. Read our full Disclosure here.

US Army Cutting 24,000 Jobs | Smallest Size Since 1940


The US Army has begun cutting 5% of jobs, resulting in the loss of 24,000 jobs.

Most of these jobs that have been cut are positions already struggling to recruit members.

The Army isn’t cutting anyone out of the Army but reducing their positions.

The folks at Fox News share more:

As the U.S. Army struggles with recruitment, the service is cutting its force by about 24,000 in a restructuring that it says will help the service fight in future wars.

The almost 5% of jobs cut will mostly affect posts that have remained empty and not actual soldiers, according to an Army document published Tuesday.

“The Army is not asking current soldiers to leave. As the Army builds back end strength over the next few years, most installations will likely see an increase in the number of soldiers actually stationed there,” the Army said.

Most of the jobs being slashed are related to counter-insurgency positions that grew during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but are not in high demand today.

The Army “is currently significantly over-structured,” according to the document, and there aren’t enough soldiers to fill existing units.

The service is currently structured to have up to 494,000 soldiers, but the total number of active duty soldiers is about 445,000. The new plan has Army leaders looking to recruit enough troops through Fiscal Year 2029 to reach a goal of 470,000 active-duty soldiers.

ABC News shares more:

“We’re moving away from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. We want to be postured for large-scale combat operations,” Wormuth told reporters on Tuesday. “So we looked at where were there pieces of force structure that were probably more associated with counterinsurgency, for example, that we don’t need anymore.”

George added that Army leaders did a lot of analysis to choose the places to cut.

“The things that we want to not have in our formation are actually things that we don’t think are going to make us successful on the battlefield going forward,” he said.

According to an Army document, the service is “significantly overstructured” and there aren’t enough soldiers to fill existing units. The cuts, it said, are “spaces” not “faces” and the Army will not be asking soldiers to leave the force.

Instead, the decision reflects the reality that for years the Army hasn’t been able to fill thousands of empty posts. While the Army as it’s currently structured can have up to 494,000 soldiers, the total number of active-duty soldiers right now is about 445,000. Under the new plan, the goal is to bring in enough troops over the next five years to reach a level of 470,000.

The US Army is preparing for future wars.

Do they know something that we don’t?



 

Join the conversation!

Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!

Leave a comment
Thanks for sharing!