WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio -- Air Force Materiel Command officials have announced that voluntary retirement and separation incentives will not be offered to its civilian workforce during the remainder of fiscal 2011 which ends Sept 30. Instead, the command will continue using Air Force civilian hiring controls to manage the size and make-up of the force, including the filling of only one civilian vacancy for every two that occur.

"Considering budget and manpower uncertainties, we felt it prudent to begin planning for a potential reduction in force," said John Steenbock, AFMC director of personnel. "That included our survey asking how many might be interested in incentives provided by the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority/Voluntary Separation Incentive Program. As it turned out, 6,652 indicated an interest."

However, the command has no firm data on force structure changes or how many -- if any -- manpower reductions it may have to take, so it will not reduce positions or offer the incentive this fiscal year. The command will reassess in fiscal 2012 and will continue managing the size and composition of the workforce through existing hiring controls.

Following AFMC's announcement in May that it would restrict hiring and survey its workforce to gauge interest in the incentives, Air Force officials also implemented service-wide hiring controls. Those service-wide hiring controls are similar in nature, intended to maintain civilian manning at fiscal 2010 levels while also giving higher priority to filling positions in strategic mission areas such as the nuclear enterprise, acquisition, and test and evaluation.