Few Army employees would escape furloughs

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/01/24/few-army-employees-would-escape-furloughs/?wprss=rss_politics

Few Army employees would escape furloughs
Posted by Eric Yoder on January 24, 2013 at 11:26 am

The Army is allowing only limited exceptions to its hiring freeze now underway, while few current employees would escape unpaid furloughs if sequestration hits.

The military services recently announced an immediate hiring freeze and outlined the potential for furloughs and other steps that might be needed if they must absorb automatic cuts of up to around 10 percent in many of their programs starting in early March. The Army is one of the government’s largest employers of federal workers, with about 280,000 civilian employees.

In a memo dated Tuesday, the Army manpower office said that no new “tentative or firm job offers of civilian employment will be extended after the date of this memorandum. Firm job offers extended prior to the date of this memorandum will be honored provided that the individual’s entry-on-duty date was established for a date certain.”

Also, internal recruitment actions limited to current Army employees “may continue with an area of consideration no wider than the local commuting area associated with the position in question.”