Army to cut 8,700 civilian workers

The Army announced Thursday that it’s moving forward with plans to cut 8,700 civilian positions next year as it grapples with budget cuts.

The staff cuts, first announced in July, will span across 37 states and 70 locations, the Army said.

The cuts, which will be made before Sept. 30, 2012, are needed because of decreased funding levels in the 2012 budget, the Army said.

“To the maximum extent possible, the Army will rely on voluntary departures to achieve these manpower reductions,” Thomas Lamont, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, said in a statement.

Nearly 90 percent of the staffing cuts will be in the Army’s Installation Management Command, Army Materiel Command and Training and Doctrine Command.

While these staffing cuts are taking place in the 2012 budget, the Pentagon is currently planning for its 2013 budget and $350 billion in national defense cuts over the next decade that resulted from the August debt-limit deal. Officials with the Marines have indicated they are likely to cut troop levels.

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