Accession Number:

ADA374767

Title:

Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Human Resources Strategy

Descriptive Note:

Final technical rept

Corporate Author:

DEFENSE SCIENCE BOARD WASHINGTON DC

Personal Author(s):

• Foster, Jr., John S.
• Welch, Larry D.

Report Date:

2000-02-01

Pagination or Media Count:

133.0

Abstract:

The Department of Defense DoD employs more than three million people. Nearly half of its personnel, 1.44 million, are active duty military. About 870,000 Reservists, composed of 410,000 Selected Reservists and 460,000 National Guard personnel, add to the active duty force. Civilian personnel make up the remaining workforce, numbering about 730,000. These three million employees are supported by an array of defense contractors providing a wide variety of goods and services to the Department. Moreover, the Department spends more than half of its 270 billion budget on pay and allowances alone. With a workforce this large, varied, diverse, and important, it is not surprising that its management is a uniquely challenging undertaking. The human resource challenges facing DoD have changed rapidly over the last decade as a result of many factors. A robust economy, civilian sector competition for employees to fill high-technology positions, declining American public interest in public service, major changes in the Departments missions and operational tempo, and a significant downsizing of the Departments workforce are a few examples. Reducing the size of the overall workforce by more than a million personnel, from a high in 1987 of 4.1 million, has left in place a very different force distribution - in age, education, and skill.

Descriptors:

• *CIVILIAN PERSONNEL
• *DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
• *HUMAN RESOURCES
• *MILITARY PERSONNEL
• ACTIVE DUTY
• CONTRACTORS
• EMPLOYMENT
• MILITARY RESERVES

Subject Categories:

• Personnel Management and Labor Relations

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE