The U.S. Department of Defense announced yesterday that it intends to reduce its civilian workforce by at least 5 percent, in a new move as part of President Donald Trump’s administration’s stated desire to reduce the number of federal employees.

Senior Pentagon official Darren Selnick said in a statement that the abolition of these posts was intended to “enable us to be more efficient and refocus the department on the president’s priorities.”

“We expect to lay off approximately 5,400 probationary workers starting next week as part of this initial effort, after which we will freeze hiring while we further analyse our staffing needs.”